‘Still Too Early’ to Start Countdown Toward Hard Switchover to Digital Radio, U.K. Minister Says

It’s “still too early” for the U.K. government to start the countdown toward a hard switchover from analog to digital radio, Ed Vaizey, the U.K. minister for culture and the digital economy, told the annual Drive to Digital conference Friday at BBC headquarters in London. “It might be right in a couple of years,” Vaizey said. “We are making really good progress, and 2017 now looks very likely for a time when whatever government is in power can take stock and set a timetable.” In late 2013, Vaizey laid out his conditions for starting a countdown toward a digital switchover, saying most radio listening in the U.K. needs to be digital, and that digital transmitter coverage has to match that of FM. Digital listening now stands at 38 percent and both the BBC and commercial radio stations are building more transmitters, partly with funding from the government and partly by the broadcasters, Vaizey said. “It’s a difficult and complex process,” Vaizey said of building digital transmitter coverage. The BBC is now at 95 percent coverage and should be at 97 percent by the end of this year, he said. However, the commercial and local networks still offer significantly less coverage, he said. Two-thirds of all new cars in the U.K. now come with a factory-installed digital radio, compared with 4 percent only five years ago, Vaizey said. “So we are now closer to the goal of radio switchover. But converting the existing ‘park’ of analog cars and trucks remains a challenge.” On the thorny issue of continuing to allow the sale of analog-only radios, Vaizey said: “It’s controversial and retailers who know their customers don’t want to push them away from products they want to buy. I want this to be driven by the customers. If radios can get both analogue and digital I want it to seem ridiculous not to buy a radio with digital.”