News story about legislation hurriedly passed by the UK government reducing spectrum available for radio broadcasts on DAB digital multiplexes in order to allow the launch of BT plc's 'Movio' mobile television service, written by Grant Goddard in September 2006 for The Radio Magazine.

1. NEWS: GOVERNMENT RUSHES
LEGISLATION REDUCING
SPECTRUM FOR RADIO ON DAB
MULTIPLEXES TO ENABLE BT
'MOVIO' TV SERVICE LAUNCH
by
GRANT GODDARD
www.grantgoddard.co.uk
September 2006

2. News: Government Rushes Legislation Reducing Spectrum For Radio On DAB Multiplexes To Enable BT 'Movio' TV
Service Launch page 2
©2006 Grant Goddard
The government has approved the proposal by the Department for Culture,
Media & Sport [DCMS] to reduce the amount of spectrum allocated to radio
usage on DAB digital multiplexes from 80 to 70 per cent.
The change in legislation was rushed through Parliament in the form of two
Statutory Instruments (numbers 2130 and 2131) in time for BT Movio to launch
its new mobile television service last week, an innovation that requires 30 per
cent of the bandwidth available on Digital One’s national DAB multiplex. It
appears that no government department issued a press release heralding the
changes. A three-page statement that recently appeared on the DCMS web
site (though dated “June 2006”) summarises the government’s response to the
consultation. It concluded that “there was a general consensus that increasing
the data limits to 30 per cent was about right, and that this is a logical
development reflecting growing interest in providing enriched content to
augment the audio experience.”
The DCMS document admitted that “some respondents felt that a digital radio
multiplex should be reserved for radio use, and that reducing the amount of
bandwidth would reduce the quality of DAB radio broadcasts” [see issue #744].
However, the government concluded that “the use of some multiplex capacity
for mobile TV would assist the take-up of DAB enabled services” because “the
BT Movio trial showed that users spent more time listening to DAB radio than
watching TV”.
Answering criticism that the change would distort competition and create a
windfall gain for BT plc and the owner of the sole commercial national DAB
multiplex, the DCMS said that “it is true that Digital One and BT Movio could
benefit from lower cost than their competitors” by using DAB spectrum rather
than other delivery technologies, but that “any damage to competition is, in the
longer term, minimal and would be more than offset by the benefits to
consumers.”
GCap has already stated that it expects to earn £9m this year from the leasing
of multiplex spectrum to BT Movio, considerably more than its earnings from its
own digital radio stations.
[First published in 'The Radio Magazine' as 'DCMS Approves Less Radio On DAB', #753, 13 September 2006]
Grant Goddard is a media analyst / radio specialist / radio consultant with thirty years of
experience in the broadcasting industry, having held senior management and consultancy
roles within the commercial media sector in the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia. Details at
http://www.grantgoddard.co.uk