SSDAB & Community Radio: Past, Present, & Future University of Bedfordshire, Luton - Saturday 25th March, 11am-4pm This free event was for community radio stations, commercial radio broadcasters and individuals interested in small-scale digital audio broadcasting (SSDAB) and community media.

1. Ownership and Economics
of Small Scale DAB
Steve Buckley
Chair, Sheffield Live Radio and TV
Managing Director, Community Media Solutions

2. Ownership and economics of SSDAB
 Costs – CapEx and OpEx
 Access to finance
 Revenue models
 Ownership models
 Lessons from Local TV
 Issues and takeaways

3. Capital Expenditure
 Planning and design
 Equipment and software
 Equipment installation
 Network installation
 Contribution – studio(s) > mux
 Distribution – mux > tx
 Licence application fee
 Pre-start operating costs

4. Operating Expenditure
 Transmission site costs
 Site rentals, rates, electricity
 Network charges
 Contribution – studio(s) > mux
 Distribution – mux > tx
 Multiplex system
 Monitoring, maintenance, updates
 Mux partnership management
 Ofcom licences
 Finance costs

5. Scenario 1 – Single mux / single site
Item CapEx OpEx – Year 1
Planning and design 500
Equipment / software 9,000
Equipment install 1,500
Ofcom fees 1,000 1,000
Transmission site 1,000
Tx/mux management 6,000
Total 12000 8,000

6. Scenario 2 – SFN (2x tx), mux offsite
Item CapEx OpEx – Year 1
Planning and design 1,500
Equipment / software 17,000
Equipment install 4,500
Ofcom fees 2,000 2,000
Network costs 1,000 3,000
Transmission site 6,000
Tx/mux management 12,000
Total 27,000 23,000

7. Start-up finance
 Grant funding
 Repayable loans
 Share issue
 Hire purchase / transmission as a service
 Mixed model / blended funding

8. Social investment market
Wholesale
Equity
Loans
Grants
Public Intermediate Private
Private
investors
Private
foundations
Banks

9. Revenue models
 Charges to channels / content providers
 Administrative cost
 Fixed fee
 Market price
 Hybrid pricing
 Charges for additional services

10. Cost per channel – SSDAB trials
Ofcom (2016) Small Scale DAB trials, Annex 5

11. Ownership models and
mux management
 Single licence/ local ownership
 Content provider e.g. community radio licensee
 Local consortium of content providers
 Other local ownership – public/private?
 Multiple licence mux operator
 Technical provider
 Hybrid broadcaster / technical provider

12. Lessons from the Local TV Mux
(Comux UK Ltd)
 Single licence to operate the mux for all Local TV
 Local TV channels equal shareholders in Comux UK
 Charge administrative cost to local TV channels
 Sell spare mux capacity at market price (NVS x 3)
 Distribution from post-tax profits to local TV
channels as shareholders
 Net carriage cost to local TV channels = zero

13. Issues and questions
 How to guarantee community radio channels have
an ownership stake in their local SSDAB mux?
 What regulatory constraints will apply to setting
carriage fees for channels (fair competition)?
 How to define what is “a non-commercial basis” for
the provision of SSDAB radio multiplex services?
 What prospects to engage a major investor to
support a local ownership model for SSDAB?
 What services to assure the viability of SSDAB could
best be organised on a national basis?

14. Recommendations and takeaways
 No one entity should be permitted to hold more
than one SSDAB mux service licence – key driver
for local ownership, resilience, public benefit and
development of a market for technical services
 Regulatory approach should guarantee affordable
carriage for community radio while permitting
market value to be extracted from other capacity
 Each SSDAB mux should be required to be
established as an entity that does not operate
primarily for commercial gain, including an asset
lock and profits applied to community benefit

15. Recommendations and takeaways
 Community radio services seeking to be on SSDAB
should be planning, consulting and partnership
building now to develop credible local consortia,
business models and sources of investment
 CMA should explore with major social investors and
DCMS the possibility of establishing a national
funding scheme to support adoption of SSDAB
 CMA should commission business modelling for
SSDAB, including insights from the Ofcom SSDAB
trials, to support future SSDAB planning and to
identify scope and potential for joint services

16. Thank you for tuning in!
Steve Buckley
steve@cmso.co.uk