Hands Up For DAB?
I still have my original Pure Evoke DAB radio and the box it came in. Maybe one day it will be a collector's item. One day soon if the harbingers of digital doom are right.
Sorry to get all geeky on you, but I'm intrigued by from GCap Media that they are switching off their digital-only radio stations and selling off their interest in the Digital One company that allows national commercial stations access to DAB. Their boss, Fru Hazlitt, says they can't make any money out of it, mainly because it costs so much to put the stations on that platform in the first place.
The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ, on the other hand, has the licence fee revenue and stations such as ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ 7 have been growing audiences year after year.
So the problem is not with the popularity of DAB radios (more sets than ever were sold at the tail end of last year) but in the business model which seeks to convert that popularity into hard cash.
Except in Scotland there are added complications involving the number of DAB blackspots between the major towns and cities.
So, as one who regrets the demise of any radio station - commercial or ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ - I have a question for diary readers
Does DAB have a future?
