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FM Radio Faces UK Government Switch-Off As Digital Listening Passes 50 Percent Milestone (inews.co.uk)
The Amazon Echo and other smart speakers have helped push the audience for digital radio past that of FM and AM in the UK for the first time. According to Radio Joint Audience Research (RAJAR), digital listening has reached a new record share of 50.9%, up from 47.2% a year ago. This milestone will trigger a government review into whether the analog FM radio signal should be switched off altogether. iNews reports: The BBC said it would be "premature" to switch off the FM signal. It could cut off drivers with analogue car radios and disenfranchise older wireless listeners. Margot James, Digital minister, welcomed "an important milestone for radio." She confirmed that the Government will "work closely with all partners -- the BBC, commercial radio, (transmitter business) Arqiva, car manufacturers and listeners" before committing to a timetable for analogue switch-off.
James Purnell, BBC Director of Radio and Education, said: "We're fully committed to digital, and growing its audiences, but, along with other broadcasters, we've already said that it would be premature to switch off FM." Mr Purnell said that BBC podcast listening was up a third across all audiences since the same time last year, accounting now for 40,000 hours a week. But younger audiences have not inherited the habit of listening to "live" radio, even on digital.
James Purnell, BBC Director of Radio and Education, said: "We're fully committed to digital, and growing its audiences, but, along with other broadcasters, we've already said that it would be premature to switch off FM." Mr Purnell said that BBC podcast listening was up a third across all audiences since the same time last year, accounting now for 40,000 hours a week. But younger audiences have not inherited the habit of listening to "live" radio, even on digital.
I'd definitely about freeing up FM spectrum, but the decision is more to do with OTA FM radio vs. DAB than streaming, the idea being that at 50% it worth *considering* whether it's time to set a date for mandating that FM radio stations switch to DAB-only (many currently broadcast on both), thus freeing up the FM spectrum for other things. That will almost certainly result in another expensive spectrum auction to generate revenue for the UK government, who probably doesn't really care all that much what it's going to be used for - 5G, IoT, whatever - as long as someone is willing to pay a lot of money for it. Besides the fact that for many areas DAB reception is still far less reliable and offers poorer sound quality than FM does (if you can received it at all), FM also enables in-car audio systems to cut to local FM radio stations for traffic updates, which are often far more up to date and informative than SatNav provided data.
As an example from a personal perspective, I can get my preferred local radio station for about 50% of my commute on DAB, and maybe a little as half of that is understandable if it's raining/snowing hard enough. Meanwhile, FM is clear as a bell the entire way regardless of weather conditions, and I get switched over to the traffic updates from a few other local stations that can be useful in avoiding bottlenecks. This is a common complaint from commuters right across the UK, partly stemming from the fact that the UK's DAB infrastructure is based on the older DAB standard rather than the more effective DAB+, so I'd say if you want to switch off the FM radio stations then you need to update the DAB infrastructure to DAB+ first, and only then see whether it's viable or not.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
> I can get my preferred local radio station for about 50% of my commute on DAB, and maybe a little as half of that is understandable if it's raining/snowing hard enough. Meanwhile, FM is clear as a bell the entire way...
This is what still pisses me off about digital TV. If it's too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry, too windy, too calm, third Tuesday after a conjunction of Saturn and Venus in the fourth house, or just felt like it, I get tearing and super loud ICK ACK ZZZXXK and I may as well turn it off and do something more entertaining instead, like undergoing root canal surgery without anaesthetic. On analogue I had a bit of snow and there was occasional wow, flutter and dropout but it was still watchable.
"Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
Regarding point 2 - I've never understood why the UK doesn't just make it mandatory on new vehicles sold in the UK. They have emissions standards, they have safety standards...why not other strategic standards?
What is so important about a radio? Most people are more concerned with the ability for a new car to bluetooth and spotify than listen to an endless stream of adverts and the same generic shitty music pop music on every station.
What is so important about a radio?
I don't know about Britain, but here in the United States, all radio stations carry announcements from the Emergency Alert System, such as severe weather warnings from the National Weather Service.