Digital Economy Bill - No radio switch off date

The UK Government's Digital Economy Bill fails to give a specific date to switch off all AM and FM radio stations.

The Digital Britain report published in June 2009 had proposed 2015 as the date for radio's digital switchover which could render useless some 150 million AM and FM radios.

A Daily Telegraph report says:

Sion Simon, the Minister for the Creative Industries, defended the decision not to enter a precise switchover date into the legislation.

He said: “The bill leaves a lot of flexibility while sending a strong signal that the Government is committed to making this change.”

He explained that although a date was not specified in the legislation, the intention for the earliest switchover date to be 2015 was still there, but the Government had not wanted to enforce a date in a “prescriptive way” as it did not want “to make any mistakes moving forward”.

Read the full Daily Telegraph article No date for radio digital switchover By Emma Barnett
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/6616161/Digital-
Economy-Bill-No-date-for-radio-digital-switchover.html

June 2009 - Radio revolution will leave listeners in silence
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/june2009/
dab_technology_responses.htm