Ten Years After: Dab in Europe （2）

Published:2011/8/4 22:25:00 Author:Li xiao na From:SeekIC

By Hans Weber

The 99-quid radio

The situation in Great Britain is quite different. Here the market started to move in late 2002. It was recognized that the only way to achieve widespread market penetration of DAB receivers was via the price. The ’magic boundary’ was considered to be a receiver under the 100-pound level. The initiative for producing a ’99-quid kitchen radio’ did not come from the manufacturers or a similar group, but instead from the programme providers. The BBC and commercial broadcasters, in particular Digital One. provides funding for developing an IC named ’Chorus’. The manufacturing cost of this IC was so low that the receiver price could be brought below the magic boundary, although at first this was only possible with additional subsidies. Shortly before Christmas 2002. the Pure Digital Evoke-1 went on sale in selected shops following an extensive advertising campaign, and it was sold out after only a few hours. This ’initial spark" encouraged other manufacturers to join the competition with attractively priced offerings. Not only did this drive down prices (presently, the cheapest receiver costs around 70 pounds, equivalent to 105 euros), it also increased awareness and attracted other customers who were willing to pay somewhat higher prices.

The number of DAB receivers sold in the UK has risen from approximately 50.000 in mid-2002 to the present figure of more than half a million — and that with a degree of coverage originally comparable to that in Germany, and now even somewhat lower.

Of course, the initial situation in Great Britain was also different. Medium-wave broadcasting is much more common here than elsewhere, so die difference in reception quality is more evident than with FM broadcasting. In addition, greater emphasis was placed on "new" programmes (which cannot be received using analogue receivers), and they were promoted in the media.
.Another advantage relative to Germany is that in the UK. DAB is available in only one frequency band (Band III. 174-240 MHz). In Germany, DAB is also transmitted in the L band (1452-1492 MHz), which unfortunately increases costs and reduces transmitter range.

West Europe: a varied situation

Nearly complete coverage has been established in Belgium, which has the highest level of coverage (95 %) in all of Europe.

In France, the focus was on large metropolitan areas from the very beginning. DAB programming is available in Paris. Lyon. Marseille. Toulouse and Nantes, and in total 25 to 30 percent of the population can be reached. In the Netherlands, regular DAB operation was only started on 27 February 2004 after a five-year lest phase, which surprisingly made the Netherlands the last of the pre-expansion EC countries to introduce regular DAB service. There as well, availability is concentrated in regions with high population density, and according to official statements, approximately 40 percent of the population is currently covered.

All of these countries have in common that the number of receivers sold lags behind the technical investments in the transmitting network. This may in part be due to the fact that in the beginning, relatively small markets are not especially attractive for large manufacturers.

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