Swedish government issues fact sheet on digital radio distribution

The Swedish Ministry of Education, Research and Culture has issued a fact sheet in English on Digital Radio Distribution, which puts into context its recent decision to effectively freeze development of digital radio in Sweden. This is the text of the fact sheet:

In the Government communication Digital radio distribution (Comm. 2005/06:66), the Government notes that the distribution of radio is being further digitalised. The Government considers, however, that there is no reason, at present, to choose any single technology for future radio distribution, and that, as a result, a decision will not be taken to expand DAB broadcasting.

Digital radio distribution

Since 1995, Swedish Radio (SR) and the Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company (UR) have been licensed to operate trial broadcasting with DAB technology. DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) is a technology for digital terrestrial radio broadcasting. Private local radio has chosen not to participate on the grounds that economic conditions are not sufficiently favourable.

Background

The future of digital radio has been the subject of a two-stage inquiry. An inquiry chair presented an interim report Digital Radio. Survey and analysis (Swedish Government Official Report 2002:38) in April 2002. This interim report provided a basis for an all-party committee of inquiry tasked with conducting an overall analysis and taking a position on the future of digital radio. The committee presented its final report Digital Radio (Swedish Government Official Report 2004:16) in February 2004. The committee proposes a gradual expansion of DAB and incentives for the private radio industry to initiate broadcasting.

Both SR and commercial radio companies have proposed that FM radio be closed down in favour of the introduction of DAB. The main argument put forward by SR for introducing DAB is increased broadcasting capacity; SR considers it needs more channels to be able to reach more groups. Private local radio regards a switch to DAB as an opportunity to attain more broadcasting capacity and hence more opportunities for development.

The Government’s assessment

In a communication presented to the Riksdag, the Government notes that distribution of radio is in the process of being digitalised. A number of different technical solutions exist or are currently being developed for distribution of digital radio. The Government considers that in light of this, there is no reason now to choose any single technology for future radio distribution. Against this background, no decision will be taken to expand DAB broadcasting, and the closure of FM network broadcasting will not be considered.

One of the reasons for the Government’s assessment is that the advantages for consumers have not yet been made clear. At present there are between 20 and 30 million analogue radio sets that would need to be replaced. There are also other technical solutions that have not yet been fully tested, such as cooperation between radio and TV. DAB technology is being used in other European countries but with limited success and developments in different countries vary. Moreover, the Government considers that no assessment has been made of whether there are economic conditions for a broader choice of radio in Sweden and that there is no basis for arguing that more channels would lead to more widespread radio listening.

The Government’s assessment does not mean exclusion of any form of radio distribution. On the contrary, continued pilot projects using various digital broadcasting technologies will lead to flexibility and an opportunity to follow and be at the cutting edge of the technical development. The point of departure should therefore be that SR should continue to follow technical developments in an independent and unbiased manner and that the company should test various distribution channels to reach its audience.

Assignment to the Radio and TV Authority

The Government intends to monitor developments and return to the issue of digital radio distribution whenever political decisions or viewpoints are necessary. As part of this strategy, the Government intends to give the Radio and TV Authority the assignment, in a dialogue with SR, UR, other companies and organisations in the radio and TV industries, representatives of community radio, the agencies concerned and other stakeholders, of preparing a basis for continual assessments of different radio distribution technologies. This assignment will take three years, and will be reported to the Government on three separate occasions.

Source: Media Network

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