Australia/The prospect of internet streaming being a viable replacement technology for digital radio is shot down in a new report to be released this week.
The contention of Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull and recommendation by the Lewis efficiency review that radio transmission can be carried by mobile networks rather than DAB+ (Digital Audio Broadcasting) digital radio, particularly in rural areas, is refuted in the report by Reg Coutts.
“Internet radio on smart- phones by itself cannot substitute for broadcast radio,” said the author of the report commissioned by Commercial Radio Australia.
As recently as last week, Mr Turnbull spoke of the “enormous flexibility offered by the internet and digital technologies” for the ABC’s radio services in regional and rural Australia.
His belief digital radio need not be rolled out in rural areas has dulled, if not killed, the prospects for digital radio in Australia and frustrated regional operators with no immediate plans for the rollout of the DAB+ platform, despite 23 per cent of all metropolitan radio listening now done via DAB+.
The Lewis efficiency review into ABC and SBS also recommended the closure of the public broadcaster’s DAB+ services. It said “significant savings over time could be realised if digital terrestrial radio services were no longer provided, with online and mobile alternatives maintained.”
Indeed, the Lewis report is also believed to have gone as far as recommending the closing of ABC regional radio stations due to population shifts.
Commercial Radio Australia commissioned Professor Coutts’ report after similar studies in Europe showed mobile networks would not come close to being able to support radio listening if analog or digital signals were to be abandoned.
Coutts notes it is “not surprising that some naive observers ask whether there is a need to expand broadcast digital radio nationally given the growth of internet radio (audio streaming) on smart- phones.”
He argues they are complementary platforms and that beyond listener demand for broadcast digital radio, techno-economic analysis shows “our mobile networks are not able to economically accommodate the ongoing demand for quality broadcasting radio.”
The Lewis study noted “the government has yet to form a view on the roll out of digital radio beyond metropolitan areas” and called it a “supplementary service” operating alongside AM and FM radio and digital radio content on other platforms.
In September, Mr Turnbull noted it was “interesting to see the growth in streamed radio over the net, from 4.5 per cent in 2009 to 8.1 per cent as at June 2013.”
The Coutts report counters digital radio growth has beaten forecasts in Australia and “been a stimulus” for the transition from AM/FM to DAB+ digital radio in Europe and now Asia.
He argues “techno-economic analysis demonstrates upgraded mobile broadband communications networks cannot economically substitute for the need for digital radio broadcasting in Australia, particularly in regional centres.”
The core inefficiency, he argues is mobile internet radio is sent to users on their mobile “as a unicast (ie one to one transmission) rather than multicast (ie one to many, as in broadcasting)”.
Coutts notes that the effective “cost of transmission” does not scale whereas broadcast digital radio transmission costs are independent of the number of listeners.
Coutts, an emeritus professor of telecommunications at Adelaide University and former member of the NBN Expert Panel, said business models for radio carriage over mobile networks “are still being evaluated” but are likely to see: mobile network operators (MNOs) pay to upgrade each of their networks; broadcasters pay the MNOs for using the capacity required; and listeners pay to receive radio streamed via mobiles.
The report also notes mobile radio streaming, unlike DAB+ listening, is not free; it interrupts other mobile applications; latency (or signal delay) on streaming is significantly worse than digital radio; and without digital radio rollout, regional broadcasters will be handicapped next to their metropolitan counterparts.
Unlike some of the European studies, the report does not quantify what proportion of mobile network capacity would be taken by mass radio streaming or the abolition of DAB+ services, although it points out only major regional areas and major highways will use the 4G signal.
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