Industry group fails to set switch-off date for analogue signal

The Digital Radio Working Group, DRWG, has failed to set a switch-off date for the analogue signal in its interim report, released today, but has urged larger FM stations to begin to migrate to DAB with total migration completed by 2020.

The cross-industry group, set up in November 2007 to look at the future of digital radio, recommends migrating all national, regional and large local stations to DAB, with FM continuing to be used by small local and community radio stations.

According to the report, a long-term plan should be developed to move all radio services across to digital, predicted for 2020, but it adds that the Government first needs to set out the conditions that must be met before this change can be achieved. This should be done between 2012 and 2015.

Conditions include the coverage of DAB transmission being improved around the country, the level of listening reaching 50%, and the implementation of digital sets in cars becoming the norm.

Andrew Harrison, chief executive of the Radio Centre said: "We are very pleased with this outcome at this point. I think it is a more pragmatic approach than before."
"Obviously, it's inevitable that some parties will want switch-off sooner than others, but as everyone is working together on this, including the BBC, commercial radio and community radio, we now have an aligned plan across the industry."

Tony Moretta, chief executive of the Digital Radio Development Bureau, added: "It's a very sensible report, but we need to remember that it's only the interim report. The recommendation is setting a target for digital radio penetration, before setting a switchover date.

"There is a good precedent in TV for this and now radio is following this model. You need to wait until a sizeable proportion of your listener base is using DAB before setting a date."

The DRWG is due to produce its final report by the end of 2008.