Ofcom Has No Date In Mind For Analogue Radio Switchoff

Ofcom does not have a date in mind for the switch off of analogue radio, according to chief executive Ed Richards, but the regulator does have plans to develop a potential timeframe for the transition to digital.

Richards said there were reasons why radio could not immediately follow the lead of the television industry, which is to have its analogue signal switched off region by region between this autumn and 2012 (see Whitehaven Gets Ready For Digital Switchover).

“There are some here who would like to see a specific time scale to the end of analogue radio,” he told delegates at the Radio Festival in Cambridge.

“But we do not believe that the government announcing a swift, forced march to analogue switchoff today would be in the interests of listeners or the industry,” he said.

“We must recognise there are clear differences between radio and TV, in particular that digital terrestrial television could not achieve universal coverage without analogue switchoff.”

Richards also pointed out that there were up to 150 million analogue radio sets in Britain, and no equivalent TV set-top box to convert analogue equipment into digital without buying a new digital receiver.

But he said in spite of these obstacles there were “very good reasons why we should consider how to take things forward”, adding that the cost of dual transmission is a “very real and significant burden”. This money could be spent on content and on attracting listeners, he said.

He said there was value in the analogue radio spectrum that would be freed up by switchoff, and suggested the setting up of a working group between Ofcom and the industry to identify the key issues in transition from analogue to digital.

Ofcom: 020 7981 3040 www.ofcom.org.uk