The Digitalisation of Radio
The digitalisation of radio How the United Kingdom has handled the rollout of digital radio – lessons for New Zealand. A report for the Robert Bell Travelling Scholarship University of Canterbury Kineta Knight May 2009 CONTENTS Introduction 3 DAB – an overview 5 Part One – New Zealand media figures react to DAB 6 Part Two – DAB in the United Kingdom DAB terminology 8 Introduction 9 Establishing DAB in the UK: the benefits 13 Barrier to not adopting DAB 16 Launching DAB 17 Cost of DAB 19 Logistics of starting up DAB 20 Promoting DAB 21 Consumer uptake of DAB sets 22 Downfalls of DAB 24 The infamous pulling-out GCap 28 Internet streaming vs. DAB 30 Part Three – Current state of DAB in the United Kingdom Introduction 32 How the recession has affected DAB 33 Channel 4 35 DRWG – the way forward 38 DAB’s future in the UK 40 DAB+ for the future? 42 Part Four – Would DAB+ work in New Zealand? 44 Conclusions and recommendations 46 Works cited 48 2 Introduction Digital technology is now at the forefront of international media, quickly leaving the analogue medium behind. With the evolution of television in New Zealand moving into the digital age, such as Sky Television and the introduction of Freeview, the switching of radio from analogue to a digital form promises to follow closely behind. The reason digital radio is of major interest in New Zealand is because the Government, along with a digital service provider and some of the nation’s major broadcasters, have been trialling a digital service. But, for New Zealand there are still uncertainties over which digital option to choose, how best to introduce it and control growth, what impact it will have on existing stations, and what will happen to the current market when new stations are established? New Zealand broadcasting and telecommunications company Kordia has already trialled a digital service, Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB), but the Government is yet to commit to a long-term rollout of the technology.
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