Commercial Radio Australia (CRA) has welcomed the release of the Digital Radio Report from the Department of Communication which supports a roll-out of DAB+ broadcast radio to regional Australia, subject to individual broadcasters.
The report recommends the establishment of a digital radio planning committee for regional Australia to be chaired by the Australian Communication and Media Authority (ACMA).
It also looks to remove obstacles and facilitate industry planning for digital radio, such as removing current restrictions of digital only licensees in both metropolitan and regional areas and the possibility of removing restrictions if regional services are not on-air by 30 June 2018.
CRA CEO Joan Warner said it is pleased with the finding.
“CRA is pleased to note the signal of support for regional DAB+ roll-out in the report, with its recommendation for the establishment of an industry planning group,” she said.
“This means that regional Australians will not suffer a digital divide in relation to free to air broadcast radio but will eventually be on an equal footing with their metropolitan counterparts.”
The Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA) also supports the to establishment of the planning group, with CBAA president Adrian Basso noting it was “a key initiative to move things forward”.
“Radio is a free media,” Basso said. “As everything and everyone moves digital it is important that at least a primary set of media services stay freely available.
“Government legislation has ensured a primary set of free-to-air digital audio services is available in each area where digital radio has been implemented. Facilitating the extension to regional areas is welcomed.”
The report, however, said that the roll out of digital radio services will be a commercial decision for broadcasters. The report said that while recent submissions did not speculate on the amount of funding needed for a regional radio roll-out, in 2013 CRA estimated that it would cost approximately $500 million over a 16 year period.
“This represents a significant cost to the public purse, although it is understood the CRA is reviewing this figure,”the report said.
“The CRA argued that this amount compared favourably with the cost of digital television switch-over. The review notes that the switchover of digital television resulted in the release of high value spectrum to the market and that no such outcome could be anticipated with the rollout of digital radio, even if a switchover from analogue radio was to occur.”
“Given this, the timing, level of investment, and method of how digital radio services are made available to regional areas should be commercial decisions for broadcasters.”
The report also declined to set a date for switching off analogue radio in Australia, given the modest audiences for established digital radio services compared to analogue.
Norway announced this year that it would be switching off its analogue service in January 2017.
“The need to cover large geographic areas with small and dispersed populations in Australia provides unique challenges for the introduction of digital terrestrial radio, which has not been experienced in many international markets,” the report said.
“Australia will continue to rely on a combination of complementary analogue, digital and online radio technologies to deliver radio services to all Australians. Digital terrestrial radio will continue as a supplementary, rather than a replacement, technology in at least the short to medium term.”
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