The U.K.’s BBC reaffirmed its commitment to broadcasting digital ...
The U.K.’s BBC reaffirmed its commitment to broadcasting digital audio nationally. Its statement, and others from CE and DAB trade groups, came in response to an announcement Monday by commercial broadcaster GCap that it would discontinue its Digital One…
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national DAB transmission center and the Planet Rock and theJazz services over it. “The BBC has been at the forefront of digital radio for more than ten years and remains fully committed to DAB and the other digital delivery platforms,” said Jenny Abramsky, BBC director of audio and music. “It is important not to confuse GCap’s current strategy with success or failure of DAB. DAB is a success story -- two million sets were sold in 2007… More than 22 percent of U.K. adults now claim to have DAB at home, and it makes up 10 percent of all radio listening.” Recent listening figures from independent auditors show that 5.6 million people tune into BBC Radio over DAB each week, Abramsky said. BBC also offers digital radio through DTV broadcasts and the Internet, “but DAB plays a central role in maintaining radio’s popularity in the digital world, being easy to use and portable, while giving listeners more choice and a range of additional features such as program information and storage,” she said. The U.K.’s Digital Radio Development Bureau echoed the BBC’s comments, expressing regret about GCap’s withdrawal from the market. “We look forward to the emergence of new national DAB-only services, and the rationalization of the commercial radio national DAB provision,” the Bureau said, alluding to services that are unique to DAB, not digital simulcasts of analog radio broadcasts. Its reference to national DAB reflects an effort by public and commercial broadcasters to extend coverage across the U.K. in place of the local reach of the original services. Intellect, the U.K.’s CE trade association, also expressed confidence in DAB-only services on a nationwide basis. DAB radio “is growing strongly… and we believe the medium will emerge from this period of transition stronger and more attractive to both broadcasters and listeners,” the group said. “DAB radio sets enjoyed extremely strong Christmas sales, with over one million products bought in Quarter 4 of 2007 in the U.K. More than 550,000 DAB radios were sold in December alone, up 22 percent on December 2006.” Sell-through figures from retail analysts GfK put cumulative sales of DAB sets at 6.45 million at the end of 2007, up from 4.4 million in 2006, Intellect said.