Julia Day
Tuesday December 14, 2004
The Guardian

The BBC has asked the government to wait another three years before deciding
when to force listeners to convert to digital radio.

Although digital radio is proving a success, the UK is not yet ready to
switch over, the BBC said yesterday, as it submitted its vision for the
sector to the government.

The report said setting a switchover date now would be "undesirable", and
would unsettle the radio market and alarm consumers.

"Despite our commitment to digital radio as the replacement technology for
analogue radio, we contend that conditions, namely accessibility,
affordability and take-up, are not yet in place for switchover," the
corporation said.

It suggested a joint industry scheme over the next three years to plot the
migration of the entire UK market to digital.

The BBC believes switchover should not take place until digital radio
services match those of analogue and plans are in place to ensure no
organisation is left behind. It also wants the government to support
manufacturers of digital.

The corporation has already hatched a plan to allocate and manage the radio
spectrum, a strategy it believes will "deliver enhancements to all tiers of
digital radio provision".

It wants five blocks of the so-called band III spectrum to be shared out
across the entire industry to allow all BBC and commercial services to move
over to digital.
Details of the report will be shared with Ofcom and the government. It
reiterates the corporation's belief that digital radio is a "robust
broadcast medium capable of cheap, mass production and integration into a
variety of devices".

The analogue television signal will be switched off between 2008 and 2012.
The government will announce the timetable and start preparing viewers next
year.

The UK has the world's most developed digital TV market, with more than 50%
of 24.5m households receiving a signal through BSkyB, the BBC-backed
Freeview or cable. In contrast, only 4% of households own a digital radio
set.

However, the UK has between 100m and 150m analogue radios, and digital
radios sets cost at least £50. Listeners would have to invest more than £1bn
to reach the
current level of BSkyB's household penetration alone.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/new...373379,00.html