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RTÉ to cease radio transmission on DAB network

GerardKeating

RTÉ to cease radio transmission on DAB network.

Given they are the only broadcaster on DAB, is there any future for DAB in Ireland now, or is that a play to get the Government to "do something"..

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plodder

Deleted User wrote: »

I think this is a stupid idea from RTÉ. I only use DAB in my car I do not use internet stations while driving nor will I start.

From what I can see, DAB was more about squeezing more channels into the available space, than about a better listening experience. It doesn't have any advantages to the listener over FM with RDS, which any DAB car radio already has.

While I think the technology is basically unusable for the majority of people at the moment, internet (car) radio will improve and that's where you'll have to go if you want more choice.

brandonviewer

Hurrache wrote: »

I was, as someone said Google is more friendly than Alexa and I was just showing how easy it is on Alexa, whereas you're showing the opposite, Google seems to be a bit of a pain.

For anyone trying to access red fm on alexa, just say " alexa, play Corks Red fm from tune in" and you're sorted.

Cube98

radioguru02 wrote: »

Don’t suppose you recorded it?

Here is the visual version of it https://mobile.twitter.com/RTEGold/status/1366799040302710789

Declan A Walsh

Different thread, same subject, Merge the two together?
https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2058028816&page=15

Cube98

I think people are misguided to think Beaur will be interested in bringing DAB here, wireless are already here and have done nothing for DAB, even though like Beaur they are very active on it over in Britain. I think dropping remaining talk from Today FM and fully merging Spin 1038 and Spin South west is going to be the main things on their agenda.

Andy454

Why wouldn’t they be interested, they’d be the only broadcaster on the system, with pretty much a captive audience. Mosst HiFi’s and car stereos sold in the last 15 years have a DAB tuner.

Lidl is still selling DAB only radios - I saw five sets there yesterday.

JDxtra

Andy454 wrote: »

Why wouldn’t they be interested, they’d be the only broadcaster on the system, with pretty much a captive audience. Mosst HiFi’s and car stereos sold in the last 15 years have a DAB tuner.

Lidl is still selling DAB only radios - I saw five sets there yesterday.

Not in Ireland, for many new cars sold here DAB is not included. Wife has a 201 car... no DAB. I enquired about, it was an option only. Car was high spec, not the base model.

JDxtra

Reality is it's FM and streaming for radio/music in Ireland. There's no place for DAB, it's 15 years too late to do anything about it.

Former Former Former

Andy454 wrote: »

Why wouldn’t they be interested, they’d be the only broadcaster on the system, with pretty much a captive audience. Mosst HiFi’s and car stereos sold in the last 15 years have a DAB tuner.

Lidl is still selling DAB only radios - I saw five sets there yesterday.

It's the exact opposite of a captive audience. Every radio that has DAB also has FM. Everyone has a smartphone with 10,000 Internet stations. Every DAB listener has infinite choices to go elsewhere at no extra cost or hassle, that is not a captive audience.

I don't believe Lidl were selling DAB only radios. Everyone who bought one would be coming back for a refund.

Lord Nelson

JDxtra wrote: »

Not in Ireland, for many new cars sold here DAB is not included. Wife has a 201 car... no DAB. I enquired about, it was an option only. Car was high spec, not the base model.

Since December under EU regulations, all new cars in member countries must be DAB enabled to allow motorists to access services across Europe. In normal times there are around 110,000 new cars sold in Ireland annually with another 80,000 second hand imports. Most of these come from the UK and the majority have DAB. In theory, there could be close to one million cars on the road within five years with access to DAB. That's a significant market opportunity one would think?

Charles Babbage

Former Former Former wrote: »

It's the exact opposite of a captive audience. Every radio that has DAB also has FM. Everyone has a smartphone with 10,000 Internet stations. Every DAB listener has infinite choices to go elsewhere at no extra cost or hassle, that is not a captive audience.

Internet streaming is more hassle than just turning on your radio and Internet service providers charge for data, so there is cost.

FM is fine, but I at least listen to RTÉ Gold and it is not on FM.

Former Former Former

Charles Babbage wrote: »

Internet streaming is more hassle than just turning on your radio and Internet service providers charge for data, so there is cost.

FM is fine, but I at least listen to RTÉ Gold and it is not on FM.

1. Internet streaming is a little bit of hassle, but not so much hassle that people won't do it.
2. Most people are on plans that have plenty of data allowance, and there's WiFi. Cost isn't a factor.
3. Rté gold is great but it too is available through other means so again, no captive audience.

Cube98

Lord Nelson wrote: »

Since December under EU regulations, all new cars in member countries must be DAB enabled to allow motorists to access services across Europe. In normal times there are around 110,000 new cars sold in Ireland annually with another 80,000 second hand imports. Most of these come from the UK and the majority have DAB. In theory, there could be close to one million cars on the road within five years with access to DAB. That's a significant market opportunity one would think?

Every single Car on Irish roads the past 30 years has had a radio with Medium Wave, Ireland has a load of unused medium wave frequencies, nobody ever thought that was a missed opportunity.

Cube98

Andy454 wrote: »

Most HiFi’s and car stereos sold in the last 15 years have a DAB tuner..

Let's not get carried away.

JDxtra

Lord Nelson wrote: »

Since December under EU regulations, all new cars in member countries must be DAB enabled to allow motorists to access services across Europe. In normal times there are around 110,000 new cars sold in Ireland annually with another 80,000 second hand imports. Most of these come from the UK and the majority have DAB. In theory, there could be close to one million cars on the road within five years with access to DAB. That's a significant market opportunity one would think?

Agree - but it's too late for DAB to make any inroads. FM is "good enough" for most, and if anyone wants anything more it's apps/bluetooth.

Nobody is going to walk into a car showroom and ask about DAB now, or even in a few years time if we ever get any services. They will ask how can my phone connect to my car.

With Apple Carplay and Android Auto it's so easy these days, even totally wireless in some cases. That's the way the market is going.

end of the road

Cube98 wrote: »

Every single Car on Irish roads the past 30 years has had a radio with Medium Wave, Ireland has a load of unused medium wave frequencies, nobody ever thought that was a missed opportunity.

realistically medium wave is a very very different beast to dab+, and has been on the decline really for a couple of decades, therefore your attempt to use it as part of this discussion, just like all the other times you have tried it, doesn't work as both are extremely far apart in terms of differences.

Cube98 wrote: »

Let's not get carried away.

not sure how your statement has anything to do with what he stated? is what he stated fact or not?
if it is, then stating a fact isn't getting carried away, it's stating a fact.
if it's not, then him stating something is simply incorrect.
is he incorrect or is he correct in relation to the statement he has made?

frozenfrozen

has there been any indication for how much cutting DAB is saving RTE per year?

Even if the listening figures are low are we talking the savings of like 100k a year or 10m a year?

kazoo106

About €4730 in electricity costs per year for the 5 sites

Cant really think of any other costs - maintenance perhaps, but they've never really done much of that to the DAB network

frozenfrozen

amazing if they turn it off over that kind of money

Former Former Former

Costs might not be massive right now, but after many years of 'trials', RTE would eventually have to either scale it up to a proper nationwide service, launch a public awareness campaign and commit long-term to the platform... or pull the plug.

In that context, it's a no-brainer to switch it off.

Charles Babbage

The whole thing is typically Irish failure of public policy. 50c from the licence fee would probably fund the DAB network for all time. Not everyone would use it all the time, but it would be a resource. Now you'll have people buying smart speakers and data plans and mobile companies upgrading networks at far greater cost.

Andy454

It is illegal to hold or touch a phone while driving and I have yet to meet a car with a decent enough user interface that can properly select streaming stations.

Using the talk button on the steering wheel to activate Siri and request a track rarely works correctly.

The DAB service switch off saving is penny pitching to the extreme by a network that is plagued with bigger issues and should have bigger fish to fry....

Antenna

kazoo106 wrote: »

About €4730 in electricity costs per year for the 5 sites

Cant really think of any other costs - maintenance perhaps, but they've never really done much of that to the DAB network

2rn couldn't just charge 'cost price' to RTE (its parent company) for its DAB as in effect other broadcasters that use 2rn (Today FM, Newstalk, VM and others) would be unhappy by in effect subsidising RTE's DAB.
They have to be seen as treating all broadcast customers equally in terms of costings and service levels etc, so a far different situation from the Century Radio scenario many years ago.

Charles Babbage

Andy454 wrote:

It is illegal to hold or touch a phone while driving and I have yet to meet a car with a decent enough user interface that can properly select streaming stations.

Yet I have a button on my car screen for RTÉ Gold.

Antenna wrote: »

2rn couldn't just charge 'cost price' to RTE (its parent company) for its DAB as in effect other broadcasters that use 2rn (Today FM, Newstalk, VM and others) would be unhappy by in effect subsidising RTE's DAB.
They have to be seen as treating all broadcast customers equally in terms of costings and service levels etc, so a far different situation from the Century Radio scenario many years ago.

The broadcasting infrastructure, from DAB to Saorsat should be a distinctly funded service with a marginal pricing approach to individual services.

lertsnim

Andy454 wrote: »

It is illegal to hold or touch a phone while driving and I have yet to meet a car with a decent enough user interface that can properly select streaming stations.

Saying "Hey Google, play RTÉ Gold" works for me.

KildareP

frozenfrozen wrote: »

has there been any indication for how much cutting DAB is saving RTE per year?

Even if the listening figures are low are we talking the savings of like 100k a year or 10m a year?

If you look at it in isolation at what it costs today versus what you have in your pocket tomorrow if it's all shutdown, then the savings are tiny.

When you look at what you'd need to continue forward with DAB, it's only broadcast from 5 sites currently, versus ~20 main sites along with ~20 more "filler" sites for equivalent national FM coverage.

To the best of my knowledge the current 5 sites are still on their original mid-2000-era transmitters so you're effectively looking at starting over, minimum of 20 sites to fit out and even then you'll still have significant blackspots.

Balance this against the extremely low overall listenership of DAB today, very dated nature of the DAB platform, total lack of interest from elsewhere in the industry, our extremely small population to commercially support an extensive network of stations, added with ever-increasing competition from advancements in online streaming (both live and via the likes of Spotify, Apple Music, Youtube) and changes in listener habits (smart speakers, Carplay/Android Auto)... it's hard to justify continuing with DAB.

Or to go back to the savings question, it's a lot of money RTÉ doesn't have to come up with in the near future for minimum identifiable return.

Andy454

Former Former Former wrote: »

1. Internet streaming is a little bit of hassle, but not so much hassle that people won't do it.
2. Most people are on plans that have plenty of data allowance, and there's WiFi. Cost isn't a factor.
3. Rté gold is great but it too is available through other means so again, no captive audience.

If you are internet streaming already, you are listening to something other than Rte...

Former Former Former

Andy454 wrote: »

If you are internet streaming already, you are listening to something other than Rte...

But your point was that it's a captive audience. You've just proved that it's the opposite, the audience for broadcasting has never been less captive.

Hurrache

Andy454 wrote: »

I have yet to meet a car with a decent enough user interface that can properly select streaming stations.

Like the posters said, Android Auto fits the bill, not sure about Apple as I haven't used that as I don't have an iPhone but likely is similar.

kazoo106

Just noticing

Stereo on RTE Gold on Saorview is the opposite way around to DAB

Now in this day and age I would not have thought that anything analog should be in the audio chain !!!