Lords warn of “major public reaction” against digital radio switchover

A House of Lords committee has warned that a lack of understanding about the 2015 radio digital switchover could lead to a “major public reaction”.

The Communications Committee report said that because a lack  of government information people are still buying analogue radios which will soon be out of date. It added that car manufacturers are still fitting analogue radios in new cars and digital radios will not be fitted as standard in all cars until 2013, something which has been seen as a major obstacle to widespread DAB adoption.

There are currently between 50-100 million analogue/FM radios in the UK which will become largely redundant after 2015 when national and regional radio stations are switched to a digital only service, the report said, with around 20 million car radios which will require converters in order to receive a digital service.

The strongly worded document said, however, that with the large investment already made in digital radio, scrapping the switchover would turn “confusion into an utter shambles”.

The report recommends that the government takes the following steps:

• Providing a detailed plan for universal digital radio coverage including how it is to be funded
• Developing a policy for the long term use of FM
• Devising a help scheme for radio switchover financed by general taxation rather than the BBC licence fee
• Ensuring new digital car radios are fitted with a multi-standard chip to enable their use overseas
• Encouraging radio manufacturers and retailers to devise a sensible scrappage scheme for redundant analogue radios

Lord Fowler, chairman of the House of Lords Communications Committee, said: “Virtually all the witnesses who gave evidence to the Committee spoke of the need for greater clarity of policy in digital radio switchover. In particular the public are not being told what radio switchover will mean for them.

“Millions of FM/analogue radios will become largely redundant. Millions of car owners will have to fit converters to receive a digital service. It is urgent that the government now settle policy and in addition step up their efforts to inform the public. There is a danger of a public backlash if this is no done.”