All posts by Mark
Below are all of Mark's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
nickwilcock:
You cannot set your watch by digital TV either, even more so if you are watching Sky or Freesat.
That's the reason why BBC1 & ITV no longer show the clock before the news programmes, as they used to in the old days. It's out by up to ten seconds, depending on your method of viewing.
All digital radio systems will be the same.
Digital TV didn't bring improvements over analogue TV unless you are watching in HD, and only a small number are. The analogue TV pictures were superior to the compressed SD pictures on Freeview.
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Mel:
LBC is part of a group which made a large trading profit last year. They are certainly not in financial trouble.
LBC was costing the company (Global Radio) a large amount in DAB carriage, and the incremental advcertising revenue from non-London listeners didn't cover this cost. That's why they have taken it off - it's a purely commercial decision.
They couldn't remove it while MXR was on the air because there was a licence requirement to provide a "news and talk service", which was fulfilled by a station called DNN when the regional multiplexes launched.
Now that has gone the only requirement for the 97.3FM licence rollover is to carry the station on DAB in London, which they are doing.
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andrew sambrook:
MXR North West is not coming back. The licence period came to an end, the licence holder handed it back to Ofcom and nobody else wanted it. There is nothing else that Ofcom can do under those circumstances apart from scrap the licence.
The spare frequency will probably be used for the Manchester multiplex, which is currently sharing a frequency with Sheffield This will improve reception on both the Manchester and South Yorkshire multiplexes.
The only new multiplex for Manchester will be the national multiplex (commonly referred to as Digital Two). This is expected to be advertised in early 2014, so probably on-air in 2015.
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Nick Anderson:
According to their application document:
"The entire coverage area (Southampton, Eastleigh, Fareham and parts of Winchester, Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight)."
I'm not sure what you mean by "local news outlets from local multiplexes" but there will be only be one version of That's Solent available on Channel 8 DTT and online.
June 26th 2014 seems an odd choice of launch date because it's in the middle of the football World Cup and Wimbledon tennis championships, with potentially large numbers of people watching BBC1 & ITV.
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Trevor Harris:
There is not going to be a switch off of DAB because the BBC are not going to accept a situation where the only method of listening to BBC 6 Music, 1 Xtra, 5 Live Sports Extra & Radio 4 Extra on the move is by paying a mobile phone or broadband company. That cannot happen, it's a breach of the BBC's universal availability requirements. The BBC may migrate to DAB+ but only when enough sets are available. One thing is for sure, switching to DAB+ right now in the UK isn't going to increase take up of digital radio.
You appear to have an obsession with DRM+ but no other European country is using it (apart from tests, which seem to have gone on forever).
William Rogers is always available for a quote at times like this, but his radio stations account for fewer than 10% of commercial radio listening, and yet his voice seems to be the loudest on occasions like this. Why is that I wonder? Where are the quotes from Global & Bauer, whose stations make up the vast majority of commercial radio listening? Where is the quote from Helen Boaden?
The Radio Today commenters are not typical of the general public - they almost certainly don't listen to BBC local radio (which will benefit from the closure of regional multiplexes by improved coverage). How many over-65s do you get on internet forums? How many people in Newcastle want to listen to London's Biggest Conversation anyway?
One more country (Denmark) has declared that it's planning to replace FM with DAB+ at the end of the decade. Also RAI in Italy has extended its DAB+ broadcasts across the country. It isn't looking good for DRM+ in Europe.
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At the risk of sounding pedantic the DAB listening share is not 20%, it's 23.9%, so almost a quarter of all listening. Of course it could be higher but there are other ways of listening to digital stations, such as smartphones and tablets. The FM listening share has fallen from 67% to 58% in the last 2.5 years.
Most of the stations that did not migrate from the regional multiplexes to the local ones had very small audiences, particularly XFM, Choice & LBC. In the West Midlands LBC's weekly DAB reach was only 4,700, XFM was even lower at 4,200.
As for the claim that most people are using DAB radios to listen on FM, that of course isn't possible for BBC 6 Music or BBC 4 Extra. BBC 6 Music will overtake Radio 3's audience within the next couple of RAJAR surveys, it's a very popular station these days and it will never be available via an FM radio. The same applies to Radio 4 Extra, Absolute 80s, Planet Rock (outside the WM) and Jazz .
The BBC now needs to move on and build out the network to 97.5% as they have promised, and the local multiplexes need to be built out as outlined in the MoU. When the time is right a switch to DAB+ can be implemented in the UK.
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Trevor Harris:
There is nothing in that quote that suggests that DRM+ or DRM is about to be launched in the UK by the BBC. Why would they go with these technologies when virtually every other country in Europe is going with DAB+ (France has just adopted DAB+).
The BBC's link with DRM is for the provision of the World Service across the globe in countries like Russia, India and Brazil. They had a couple of tests in the UK but it didn't work out, DRM30 suffered from too much night time intereference in the Plymouth test..
The BBC Trust has given a written commitment to the UK Government that they will roll out their DAB network to FM equivalence (it was included in the 2010 licence fee agreement).
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Felicia:
You can receive LBC on an internet radio anywhere in the UK. They are reasonably priced these days and you just need Wi-Fi in your home.
The station is also on Freesat & Sky.
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Stephen Lee:
The Derbyshire multiplex should start broadcasting by the end of 2013.
The remaining 2013 expected launch dates are:
Gloucestershire 18 Oct 13
Hereford & Worcester Nov 13
Surrey Dec 13
Derbyshire Dec 13
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Sunday 22 September 2013 6:15PM
Marie:
LBC was carried on the MXR North West regional multiplex. It was the replacement for the DNN rolling news service.
This multiplex will close on Tuesday 24th September as the 10 year licence period has come to an end and the licence holder has decided not to renew it. There were no other interested parties for the licence.
LBC is now only available on DAB in the London area, but you can still access it online and via Sky or Freesat across the UK.