RadioCentre Boss Outlines Digital Radio Hurdles
Speaking at ASI’s 2007 European Radio Symposium in Barcelona, Paul Brown, chairman of the RadioCentre, pointed to a number of key reasons why digital radio was not making the same progress as digital TV.
Radio broadcasters have often been disinterested – the digital future was “uncertain, expensive and possibly more competitive,” said Brown. The BBC got a head start, pinning its expansion to the licence review, and largely moving existing services to digital initially.
When commercial radio got moving in 2000, it launched new services, which prompted the BBC to do the same. Commercial services were “not very good at the outset and inhibited by the high cost of the infrastructure,” said Brown.
Confusing technical developments had also held the medium back, leaving the consumer often waiting for “something better round the corner.”
Thirdly, there was a “lack of political drive,” stated Brown. “Radio is seen as a secondary medium,” often owned by TV companies as well, so secondary within the business as well as in the politician’s eye. “It is an enormously high mountain radio has had to climb – and still is, but the latest RAJAR data shows signs of it coming right, with all digital and DAB reach figures each up two points, whilst listening via the internet is slightly down (see