The most viable digital radio platform
Why DAB/DAB+/DMB Is the Best Digital Broadcasting System for Your Country
It Allows You to Deliver on Your Future Vision of Radio in Your Country
By choosing either one of the two WorldDMB radio technologies, DAB and DAB+, you get state-of-the-art digital radio with data services, multimedia functionalities, surround sound, conditional access, etc.
It Meets Your Needs for Data Capacity
In DAB and DAB+, data services play an important role. Both technologies can broadcast text information (DLS), pictures (Slide Show), information websites (BWS), programme guides (EPG) and traffic information (TPEG), both as programme-related or non programme-related data.
It Positions Radio to Compete Against Emerging Digital Information/Entertainment Platforms
The two radio standards DAB and DAB+ offer the latest data and multimedia functionalities for radio (see above), and the additional DMB standard allows for mobile television services or advanced visual radio. All three technologies use the same infrastructure, and thus allow for scalability of roll-out and investment.
It Works on the Spectrum Available in Your Country
DAB and DAB+ are broadcast on Band III and L-Band. Band III is becoming available in many European countries with the switch-off of analogue television.
A Wide Range of Receivers Are Available
There are over 980 models of DAB receivers commercially available, 190 of which are DMB mobile TV devices. DAB+ receivers are also beginning to emerge, and already, 10 of them are available on the international market. All DMB receivers are also capable of receiving DAB digital radio, and all DAB+ receivers can receive both DAB+ and DAB services.
Most manufacturers nowadays offer DAB devices, and prices start at as little as 32 Euros. Receiver types include home tuners, kitchen radios, in-car receivers, PCI cards, CD players, clock radios, boomboxes, midi-systems and hand-held portable devices.
By becoming a member of WorldDMB, you wil be able to access more in-depth information and get individual support and guidance on the roll-out of DAB, DMB or DAB+ in your own country.
How to Successfully Roll Out DAB in Your Country
The UK is often mentioned as a model example of a successful roll-out of DAB digital radio, and many mistakes can be avoided by taking a close look at the checklist on how to roll out DAB, which was accumulated from the experiences made in the UK.
UK DAB Roll-out Case Study
In the UK more than a million DAB digital radio products are sold annually. To date over 6 million DAB radios have been sold in the UK. There are over 400 services broadcast on DAB, and more than 50% of these are unique to DAB digital radio. The market is worth more than £150 million a year. How has the UK achieved this success while elsewhere in Europe the market struggles?
Government Support
The UK benefited enormously by having a supportive government behind the broadcaster's efforts to launch DAB digital radio. There was no subsidy offered to either manufacturers or broadcasters to encourage the digital switch, but there was encouragement and incentive in the form of an automatic analogue licence extension for broadcasters joining a DAB multiplex. And there was strong legislation in place from an early point which made the roll out of DAB licences, multiplexes, and services clear and straightforward.
Joining Forces: The DAB Marketing Organisation
With this landscape in place, public and commercial broadcasters in the UK realised that the only way to make DAB work was to join together, pool efforts and expertise to encourage chip makers and manufacturers to make new products, retailers to stock those products and then to market all the benefits of the new technology to consumers with one voice. Thus, in 2001, the DRDB (Digital Radio Development Bureau) was born, funded by the BBC and all the major commercial radio broadcasters in the UK and tasked with achieving mass market penetration for DAB digital radio as quickly as possible.
As a result, over the next few years, more and more manufacturers saw the potential of DAB digital radio both in terms of sales volume, value, and market share. Retailers, who had been sceptical about DAB, suddenly realised that they could rejuvenate an audio market that had seen no innovation since the arrival of FM in the 1960s... and make some profitable margins at the same time. In fact in the summer 2006 Curry's, a major electronics retailer, annnounced that it would no longer sell analogue radios.
Interesting Choice of DAB-Only Programmes
Research soon proved that simply broadcasting simulcasts of existing FM stations does not inspire consumers to buy DAB digital radios. Better sound quality is rarely an issue given that most people are quite happy with the quality of their FM radio. But by offering something new and unique that is unavailable on an analogue radio, consumers are encouraged to buy. UK broadcasters have embraced the concept of new services while others in Europe have stuck with simulcasting analogue stations. As a result, DAB in the UK is a healthy, growing market that delivers More Stations and More Choice and that's something consumers seem to value.
Wide Range of Affordable DAB Digital Radio Receivers
DAB digital radio enjoys a wide range of affordable products in all form factors with unique radio services from both the BBC and the commercial sector. With the DRDB gathering data and using it to promote DAB products to Japanese and Far Eastern brands, and also talking directly to the consumer about the benefits of the new technology, the DAB digital radio market has seen significant annual growth for several years.
Cross-Industry Marketing Campaigns
Marketing DAB effectively requires co-operation between all the players. Messages must be constant and consistent with no room for confusion in the mind of the consumer. So it is important that, as in the UK, marketing campaigns are co-ordinated. Individual broadcasters can promote their own services, while keeping the generic DAB message in line with that of their competitors. Cross industry support is essential and, in this respect, a central marketing bureau, such as the DRDB, is invaluable.
Market Still Growing
After five years, the DAB digital radio market in the UK is still growing, up by 50% in terms of volume and 42% by value in 05/06. Digital radio listening across all platforms is also up in the UK with the majority of listening coming via DAB digital radio - more than DTV and the Internet combined. DAB only stations are reporting healthy listening figures, and one station has broken the one million mark.
But there is more to look forward to as the UK regulator, Ofcom, plans to release further spectrum for DAB over the next few years, including a second national commercial multiplex and up to thirty new local and regional multiplexes. By 2009, the DRDB forecasts that 40% of UK households will be listening to radio on DAB.
Multimedia broadcasting in the UK is also set to grow in the coming years. Digital radio and television delivered to mobile devices using DAB-based technology are already commercially available and will continue to develop. Other digital audio technologies, such as DRM, will no doubt arrive in the UK and sit comfortably beside DAB, which remains the country's prime digital listening medium.