EXCERPTS FROM FULL BOOK
69. 11 January 2010 Criteria and a date for digital radio switchover: where’d they go? When will the UK government’s proposed ‘digital radio switchover’ happen? For a long time, we had always been told that the pre‐requisites were: market criteria that had to be reached before switchover could be announced; a fixed, single date for switchover to happen. So both of these must be in the Digital Economy Bill somewhere, surely? Well, it seems that everything (except the Bill itself) points to 2015 as the switchover date. But as for the criteria? The government’s press release of 20 November 2009 announcing the Digital Economy Bill stated: “Digital radio: update the regulatory framework to prepare for moves to digital switchover for radio by 2015.”53 The government’s accompanying Factsheet of 20 November 2009 stated: “At the centre of our ambition is the delivery of a Digital Radio Upgrade programme by the end of 2015.”54 The government’s accompanying Impact Assessments of 20 November 2009 referred to: “a switchover to digital radio by 2015” “a switchover to digital only radio by 2015” “a Digital Radio Upgrade programme, which should be completed by the end of 2015”.55 However, the government’s Explanatory Notes to the Digital Economy Bill said: nothing about criteria that have to be met; nothing explicitly about a switchover date.56 Published on 20 November 2009, the Digital Economy Bill itself contained nothing about: criteria that have to be met; an explicit date for digital radio switchover.57 What? Is this not strange? Somewhere along the way, it seems as if the agreed criteria and the switchover date just vanished into thin air. So what happened? Let’s go back and follow the timeline of how we got to where we are now. JUNE 2008 The Interim Report of the government’s Digital Radio Working Group recommended: “Government should agree a set of criteria and timetable for the migration to digital. These criteria should include an assessment of: