Last week a general email discussion has been going on talking about the costs of broadcasting online versus one-to-many broadcasting with FM or DAB.
JP Coakley, Director of Operations at RTÉ Radio made some very good points which I’m sharing with his permission. Please note these are JP’s personal thoughts and not necessarily those of RTÉ.
First things first. Let’s not demonise either side. This is neither a question of New Media refuseniks who are unable to see the tidal wave of the web coming toward them as they hold to a …

It is with profound regret we’ve had to remove our online All 80s service as we have been unable to renegotiate an equitable music royalty rate with the main music copyright agencies.
The online rate quoted by both the PPI and MCPS/IMRO is 0.001 cent per song per listener. Though it sounds miniscule collectively it equates to € 260 per listener per year. If we have just 1,000 listeners it’s plain to see that a royalty in excess of a quarter of a million euro becomes an unworkable sum.
We very much …

The first speech by Bob Collins, the new Chairman of the BAI, appears to mark a departure from the Authorities traditional focus on the administrative end of regulation to a more visionary stance.
Mr Collins called on the commercial broadcasting sector to take a more active part in emerging technologies. “Commercial broadcasters cannot stand back and see digital radio as being only something for public service broadcasting” he said. “Digital radio is an area where we have to be involved. We can’t stand back as observers of technological and editorial development …

The BBC are to expand it’s national DAB network with 60 additional transmitters.
This will result in DAB digital radio being available to 90% of the population. This almost global coverage is one of the key targets of last years Digital Britian Upgrade plan which laid the roadmap for the transition from FM to DAB.
Of interest to the island of Ireland is the installation of seven additional transmitters in Northern Ireland bringing DAB to Enniskillen & the North Antrim coast as well as bolstering coverage in Belfast.
Despite plans to drop two …

Commercial Radio Australia today released data relating to the first six months of DAB+.
Some of the headlines;

449,000 people are listening to digital radio each week
80% of them would recommend it to a friend
63% of the population are aware that DAB+ has launched in Australia
38% of people expect to purchase a set in the coming year

Considering DAB+ is on-air in just five cities for six months 449,000 people, or just over 2% of the population, is a great start. It goes to prove that when broadcasters “agree on technology and compete …

One thing I hear over and over is that internet radio is the future. Radio broadcasters will leapfrog DAB by going straight from FM to streaming online.
Bull. If you believe that … consider this;
After at least 10 years of radios availability online, RAJAR the UK radio ratings company, report only 2% of people listen to radio online. This morning Irish station Today FM has a reported JNLR 1/4 hour audience of 150,000. A quick check of their Shoutcast servers shows 2,000 people, or 1.3% of the current audience, are listening …

Digital Radio Ltd are happy to announce our official support for the RadioDNS project.
RadioDNS enables radio broadcasters to link their FM/DAB signal to IP delivered services significantly enhancing the radio listening experience. This means an FM/DAB radio or mobile phone with wi-fi can identify a radio station from its DAB or FM signal. Using that information it can connect to the radio stations web-server to display additional content on the radio itself.
Radio DNS is very clever in its simplicity and its supporters include very large broadcasters in Europe, United States …

Tagging is simply hitting a button on your DAB radio so it will remember a bit of information playing on the screen.
The video below shows tagging in operation using an iPhone app called TuneMark. When you hear a song you want to remember the name of, you tag it.  With this app you can look up the song name later, email it to yourself or shock horror even buy it on the iTunes store.
This is all nice and sweet for the music industry but what I really like about it …

The increased choice of radio station you get with DAB is nice but what really makes it sexy is Slideshow.
This is a simple jpg or series of jpg images broadcast along with the audio and displayed on your DAB receiver. It can be as simple as a static station logo or a bit more advanced with several sides showing album artwork for the currently playing song, a studio webcam or something really useful like a graphic weather display or latest traffic information.
Because it’s a simple jpg you can expand …