Some facts for people who say DAB is a failure in the UK;

• 40% of UK homes have a DAB radio.
• Half the population listen to radio via a digital platform at least once a week.
• Almost one-third of all radio listening is done via a digital platform.
• Overall radio listening is increasing.
• DAB is becoming the standard fit radio in new cars.

This has all been achieved in under ten years, without any subsidy, and against strong sentiment that DAB just doesn’t work. Well, it appears the numbers speak for themselves.

Source: RAJAR

The latest radio ratings were released in the UK and Ireland last week. While stations crow over who is No.1 we’re concerned with a basic, yet essential question; how is radio as a platform performing?

In Ireland, the news is not good, with overall listening taking another dive. Currently the Average Weekday Yesterday Listenership figure is at 84%. About ten years ago that was up at 89%. It’s clear the trend is showing less and less Irish people are listening to radio.

The opposite is true in the UK where radio listening is increasing. Radio there now reaches 91% of the population.

The key difference between the two markets is that UK listeners have a lot more choice. In Ireland, when you’re done listening to your favourite station, there is precious little else to tune to. In the UK, flip over to DAB, and there is a wealth of extra stations. So instead of turning off, UK listeners tend to listen to something else, hence the increase in overall listening.

The current RAJAR release shows the DAB platform, and the stations on it, are doing well. Of all radio listening in the UK 28.2% is now done on digital radio and DAB exclusive stations continue to increase audience. The most successful this time around is Absolute 80’s which broke the million listeners a week barrier.

In Ireland, outside of the main metro areas, listeners have an effective choice of just six stations. This is not good for listeners, it’s not good for radio and it’s not good for business.

So the choice for Irish broadcasting is to keep the status quo and wonder in twenty years why our businesses are failing or, at the very least, start learning about DAB and how it can be used to grow the business and provide for our futures.

A radio show was set up and broadcast from the conference. As guests were being interviewed, simple photos of them at the microphone were added to the programmes Slideshow output. As people across Europe listened their radio displayed a picture of that speaker in the studio.

I know this is akin to having a webcam in a studio which people can see on a website but there one important difference here; a listener can enjoy this experience on the radio itself, where it’s most relevant, without having to look up a website.

This works “out of the box” with a DAB radio, or equally as well for an FM radio with built-in wi-fi.

A short video below explains it very well in three minutes. Click, watch, enjoy.

As a commercial operator it was most interesting to hear what big national public service broadcasters are up to in the digital arena during last weeks conference in Brussels.

The European Broadcasting Union believes the future of radio is digital broadcasting. It will be multi-platform, with the internet complementing services not superseding them, and for all this to work Europe needs EU wide digital radio policies from government. On this everyone, including ourselves, agree.

It came across very strongly that the EBU, not only considers DAB+ as the platform of choice, but they are matching aspiration with action and actually doing it. Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the UK, Italy and more are leading the way.

However, with all this impressive progress, I’m wondering what happens to the “little guy”? The commercial operator covering just one city. National DAB+ coverage is not much use to these stations.

This is the number one question we are asked by local stations here in Ireland. I believe the solution is regional digital broadcasting.

Current FM signals bleed significantly into neighbouring markets as it is and JNLR consistently shows very low listenership to those out-of-market stations. People listen to the station most relevant to them. Few people in Limerick listen to neighbouring stations in Kerry or Clare who rarely, if ever, talk about Limerick! With regional digital broadcasting existing stations maintain their coverage yet still make major savings of transmission costs.

Back at the EBU, a point made time and time again, was that DAB+ launches most successfully when public and commercial broadcasters work together in unison with regulators, receiver & car manufacturers and retailers.

This is a model we are most definitely adopting here in Ireland.

Most are listening on 3G with the result that listening to radio eats up their data plan and flattens their battery fast! It’s also costing the broadcaster in infrastructure costs and additional royalty payments.

The beauty of radio broadcasting is that you have flat-rate transmission costs regardless of audience size.

A new development from RadioDNS offers the best of both worlds. The listener’s app will stream as normal but when within range of an FM or DAB signal it flips over to that without listener intervention. Instant saving on bandwidth and data plans for everyone!

The app was demonstrated at the NAB Radio Show in Chicago last week and you can see a video below. Notice how the visual information remains the same regardless if the audio is IP or broadcast.

Overall listening to radio in Ireland is on the way down.

To see a trend you need to look back over the years which I have done and you can also.

In 1999, the JNLR Listened Yesterday figure for All Radio was 88%. The most recent JNLR reports that same figure as 85%. A drop of 3%.

It gets really interesting when you compare us to the UK market. In 1999 the RAJAR Listened Yesterday figure for All Radio was 89%. The most recent RAJAR reports that same figure as 92%. An increase of 3%.

The trend is, Irish radio is falling, UK radio is growing. What are they doing with UK radio that we’re not doing in Ireland? They’re expanding the market, using DAB to offer more choice, and people now listen to radio more often.

Within eight years Norway are going DAB exclusive for the majority of their radio services.

Why have Norway taken such a bold step? The answer is here from Ole Jorgen, the CEO of Digital Radio Norway, who shared their experience and thinking at the recent World DBM event in Berlin;

“The digital radio venture in Germany is not just important for German radio listeners and radio channels, but for all of Europe. As Europe’s largest radio market, it means a lot to us in less populated countries that the major European markets now are starting to show the way, and take clear steps in the effort to secure radio’s future.

In Norway we have had digital radio broadcasting (DAB) for more than 15 years. Unfortunately we must admit that it has been a long and quite painful process, but it has also been a very informative process. Our most important experiences about what’s needed to succeed can be summarized in three main learning points: cooperation, long-term perspective and clarity.

This spring, Norwegian politicians adopted a plan for the digitization of radio and the shut down of FM. The decision came after a unified radio industry, consisting of public service and major commercial actors, (unanimously) gave the politicians a clear message on how the industry views the future of radio.

Norway has two major commercial radio broadcasters, which share the private radio market between themselves. One has been able to enjoy a very good economy for many years, the other has had a far more difficult economic situation. They have for years competed intensely for listeners, revenue and FM licenses. Still, both players have agreed upon the need for a proper and controlled transition to digital distribution. They have agreed on this, despite the fact that the digitization allows for competition from new actors who will have access to national distribution, a distribution they earlier controlled by themselves.

Why? The broadcasters have seen how the world, in a short period of time, has become more and more digital. All the major media channels are digitized, and people’s services have been fragmented and niched. Interactive media and a digital music industry have changed people’s habits and expectations to the media, especially among the younger consumers. Radio does not live in a bubble, untouched by this development. The continuously growing competition from other media channels, social media, and the use of internet and smart phones in general, is a much bigger threat to radio than to get more competing radio stations. A wider radio offer is essential in order to ensure that radio, as a media channel, shall continue to be attractive to listeners.

The radio debate in Norway has gone from being a debate about choices of technology, to a debate about existence. Radio needs to be digitized in order to be further developed. And we have a robust technology which makes this possible today, and at the same time maintain radio’s basic properties, which are accessibility, mobility, simplicity and free use. We cannot afford to sit back and watch how other media channels are consuming more and more out of our listeners time, while we still are discussing encoding technology, spectrum and so on. We need to act now.

Our communication with the public have now turned from a focus on sound quality, slide shows and extra services, to be about coverage and content. Better coverage and more content – in short, better radio! It is all about what the listeners get back in return for the digitization – communicated in a simple way. Don’t get me wrong, radio’s new opportunities on digital platforms are of course important. But if the transition is going to be a success, the public must experience that the properties, which enables radio to be radio, are being improved through digitization. In order to ensure this, the coverage must be impeccable, the content more diverse, and at the same time the user-experience must continue to be simple. Furthermore, radio must continue as a free service, available everywhere, at home and on the move. We say, it´s still radio – only better.

Different markets need different transition models. It is very challenging to build broadcasting networks in Norway. We have a difficult topography and very few people to share the costs. We need 600 – 700 transmitters to cover most of the country. It is therefore not an alternative to continue the double distribution for years to come. Large investments in new digital networks require a decision where, even more expensive, analogue networks at a certain time can be turned off. Norway has therefore developed a plan where we are shutting down all the FM networks, except for the smallest local radio channels, in 2017.

Today we have 80 % population coverage on DAB, on two national networks. The availability of radio channels are already better for DAB users, than FM can offer anywhere in the country. The progress plans are in place; within 2015 we will have build out the networks to cover almost the entire country (90 and 99%). We are already seeing the effects of clear choices; It is no longer a question whether radio will be digital, but in stead how, and how fast, radio listeners can find their way to digital listening.

Remember, digitization itself is not a goal. The shift of technology should only help radio to stand on firmer ground in the competition against other actors who are looking to hijack minutes and hours from our listeners.

The DAB+ launch on the first of August, and the future plans for further development of digital radio here in Germany, is in our view the most important events for Europe’s radio industry in many years. We are hoping to see a significant increase in the number of digital radios on the market, a faster rollout of digital radio from car manufacturers, and last but not least, a Europe that is inspired to pull in the same direction to ensure radio’s future.”

SiriusXM has been enjoying success in the USA with their satellite radio service.

It gives listeners over 180 commercial-free radio stations which can be heard coast-to-coast across the States. Channels include oldies, Top 40, Sports, Comedy and the most famous of the all, the Howard Stern channel.

Satellite radio receivers are factory installed in many cars where drivers get a three month trial period, after which, a large amount convert to paying subscribers. There are also home and portable receivers as well as online access.

This new type of radio is now coming to Ireland via a service called EUR Radio. It’s being established by Dublin company Solaris who are backed to the tune of €150m by Eutelsat and SES-Astra.

Solaris are licenced to broadcast to all 27 EU states not only via satellite but also local terrestrial transmitters in weak satellite reception spots. The result is a flawless radio signal from Croatia to Conneamara.

How does this affect the Irish radio industry?

Well two thirds of the Irish audience have access to less than eight stations (six national, one regional and one local). All of these carry significant talk content. A new operator coming to the Irish market with 150+ radio services is an attractive proposition.

In addition, because EUR Radio is Europe-wide and delivered by satellite, foreign operators can beam services into Ireland without any recourse to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.

EUR Radio may or may not work in this market but one thing is for sure; if we don’t have an alternative such as that offered by DAB in place, we’re leaving the door wide open.

A brief update on DAB worldwide, compiled by ourselves, was published in the Sunday Business Post yesterday. A scan of the article is here and full text is below;

Real growth is being experienced worldwide by DAB the new digital radio system designed to replace FM.

It’s easy to see the attraction. DAB broadcasts multiple stations simultaneously meaning significant cost savings over the, one station per transmitter, FM system. This extra capacity opens significant expansion opportunities to commercial radio and DAB’s ability to broadcast text and pictures is a bonus for advertisers. Listeners win too with an easy to use radio and more listening choice.

One of the key markets in the success or failure of DAB is Germany. Not only is it Europe’s biggest radio market but one of the biggest in the world. What happens there will have a knock-on effect across the EU and beyond.

That’s why it’s been such big news that, in August this year, Germany became the latest high-profile nation to launch DAB. One of the driving factors behind this successful launch has been the involvement of commercial operators. Up to now, outside of public service broadcasting, commercial radio has been regionalised with no national commercial network. For the first time ever DAB gives these commercial operators a national platform and they are grabbing the opportunity to invest and greatly expand their market. Working with public/commercial broadcasters, broadcasting regulator and manufacturers, Germany has enjoyed a very effective and co-ordinated launch, with an initial 50%+ reach, set to expand.

This cross-industry approach has also been most successful in Australia’s adoption of DAB where almost 10% of all radio listening is via DAB. This is astonishing growth considering the platform was launched there barely two years ago.

Meanwhile Norway are leading the world by announcing a total migration to DAB by the end of the decade. They had arrived at a crossroads where their national FM network was reaching end-of-life. Did they replace FM or go with the future technology DAB? The latter had a surprising advantage. When FM signals on the same frequency collide, they interfere with each other; hence you need lots of frequencies and lots of transmitters. DAB is the opposite. When signals on the same frequency collide they add together to make an even stronger signal. With Norway being so mountainous this advantage allows them to cover the same area with a third fewer transmitters. When you have 1,200 transmitters in your network this is a massive saving. Also, because DAB carries many stations, the new network will bring a national platform to eager commercial broadcasters.

Finally; the contentious UK market. Being the first to adopt DAB, they have made mistakes along the way, hence the contention! The rest of the world has watched, learned and are not repeating those mistakes. Nevertheless DAB is a popular success for the UK. Usage of the FM system for listening to radio has dropped below 75% and continues to fall. When it slips below 50% the UK will set a date to migrate the majority of radio to DAB as the primary broadcast platform. New national DAB stations like Absolute 80s, Jazz, Planet Rock and BBC 4 Extra continue to grow in every research book. They’ve even reversed a downward trend in overall radio listening with radio consumption, currently up to 91%, growing towards an all time high.

The opposite is true for Ireland. Our overall radio consumption is falling. The majority of the population who live outside Dublin have just eight stations to choose their listening from. This is unlikely to improve as we’ve reached capacity with available FM frequencies.

A growing group within the Irish industry see DAB as the way forward. RTÉ have a DAB network on-air in Dublin, Cork and Limerick carrying their existing four national services plus six new DAB specific stations. Learning from international experience this network is in a holding phase until the commercial sector come on board. Already a commercial DAB trial is underway in Waterford and we have an application with ComReg for another more expansive trial before the end of the year. The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland are also making moves in the area as part of their current work plan.

For our part, in addition to a DAB trial, we are working with DAB transmission and receiver chipset manufacturers to develop systems to greatly improve the non-audio benefits of DAB digital broadcasting. This is centred on the display screen found on every DAB radio and, in particular, making audience interaction with advertising more actionable and trackable.

Radio is an intrinsic part of our every day lives. Its magic has held up well against the onslaught of television in the sixties, and more recently, the internet in the naughties. It’s a proven resilient business and the exciting development of DAB promises a bright ever-growing future.

Massive development for DAB this week with the launch of DAB+ in Germany.

Germany is by far the largest radio market in Europe and one of the biggest in the world. Adopting DAB+ is a huge endorsement of the technology, and if it takes off in Germany, it’s not unreasonable to expect the rest of Europe to follow.

A key factor is the involvement of commercial radio. Until now, the only national German networks have been public service broadcasters. This launch of DAB gives commercial broadcasters a national platform for the first time ever. Being commercially minded you can be sure they will make the most of the opportunity.

Like successful launches in the UK and Australia, this is a co-ordinated cross-industry launch with support from public and commercial broadcasters to manufacturers and retailers. Michael Reichert from the German Digital Radio Project office says;

“Both public and commercial broadcasters have long believed digital is the way forward. Now, for the first time, they are working together to ensure a successfully co-ordinated launch in Germany. The importance of radio now and in the future has been shown by the close co-operation between not only broadcasters but also the network operator, the radio industry as a whole, retailers, manufacturers and the Government. These are exciting times for both listeners and Germany’s radio industry.”

The new service is available in all major cities and motorway routes with 14 brand new digital services.

This is one of the most significant launches of DAB with Germany leading the UK, Denmark, Switzerland, Norway, Italy, Malta, Hungary, The Netherlands, Australia, Hong Kong and Indonesia with DAB as their national digital radio standard.