DAB Problems Due To ‘Unrealistic Expectations’
With DAB digital radio reeling from a tough week following GCap Media’s rejection of the platform as an economically viable format, today’s MediaTel Group seminar on the ‘Future of Online’ looked at radio and its relationship with online.
Talking about the problems currently facing DAB, media journalist Ray Snoddy said: “The DAB thing comes down to completely unrealistic expectations.
“The reason GCap’s pulling out is not because it didn’t make a success of planet rock… the crisis in DAB is entirely down to the fact the Ralph Bernard made an absolute dogs dinner of the merger and his successor is having to cut costs like hell… it’s a little bit of a tragedy.”
He pointed out that theJazz was to be closed down just nine months after launching (see “It’s insane. That has to a be a five-year investment programme.”
Fellow panellist Sheryl Norman, digital director, UK, at Omnicom Media Group voiced concern that the UK radio market could end up with a lack of diversity.
She said that the rise of digital radio had looked as if it would give listeners in the UK a choice as diverse as that found in the US, but that the recent announcements had made her “worry that we’re just going to go backwards”.
Meanwhile, Richard Firminger, regional sales director, northern Europe at Yahoo!, who surprisingly left the company today, said that although DAB’s future might be uncertain, “the opportunity for internet and radio as close bedfellows is great”.
He said: “The interactivity between the two is a perfect opportunity for advertisers.”
He added that another problem DAB faces, which will not go down well with consumers, is the rise of DAB2. He said: “DAB in the current format is about to be usurped by DAB2 which is not compatible with DAB2 – you couldn’t make it up.
“The six million people who have invested in a DAB radio are about to be usurped by new technology which can’t adapt to it. That is just bonkers.”
GCap yesterday unveiled a “radical but realistic” set of measures set to boost profits and maintain long-term growth for the company, dealing a big blow to DAB digital radio in the process.
Chief executive Fru Hazlitt confirmed the closure of digital stations theJazz and Planet Rock and the intended sale of the group’s majority stake in Digital One.
The latest RAJAR figures, for the fourth quarter of 2007, show that 9.9% of all radio listening is now done via DAB (see Over 16% Of All Radio Listening Now Via Digital).
MediaTel Group: 0207 439 7575 www.mediatelgroup.co.uk