FM is likely to continue as the dominant medium for radio listening in the UK for at least 10 years, with the remaining gaps in the spectrum filled with a mixture of community stations, commercial stations, BBC fillers and perhaps the odd new BBC local station. However, in the longer term, DAB or another digital medium will eclipse FM. Many people in the broadcasting industry talk about the eventual switch-off of FM radio after analogue TV is phased out. This page explains why FM is likely to remain with us for many decades. Small scale stations Very few small scale commercial and community stations currently broadcast on DAB. This is because local DAB multiplexes cover much wider areas than these stations, making DAB transmission more expensive. In any case, many local multiplexes are already full. A proposed solution to this problem is to set up small scale local DAB multiplexes in the L band (around 1400 MHz). However, at these frequencies, a large number of transmitters will be required to provide effective coverage and, outside major cities, it will be difficult to find enough stations to fill up these smaller scale multiplexes, sharing the transmission costs. FM is by far the most economical solution and offers sound quality at least as good as DAB. The only practical digital route for these small stations is Band II DRM. The BBC As a publicly funded broadcaster, the BBC is obliged to provide universal coverage of its services. The national FM networks currently cover 98% of the population with about 200 transmitters each. The vast majority of the remaining 2% are able to receive a listenable service, albeit with some interference. A DAB network with 98% coverage will require about twice as many transmitters and would leave the remaining 2% with no service. Unless a great deal of money is spent building a very high coverage digital network, taking BBC radio off FM would be politically unacceptable. However, the networks would not necessarily be maintained in their current form. Low power FM fillers could be closed in those areas where digital reception is good, leaving just the main high power transmitters. Radios 1 to 4 may adopt narrower formats when digital listening becomes dominant, requiring the FM networks to be shared between different stations to provide a broad service to non-digital listeners. The BBC may also be asked to cut back the number of its FM networks to make way for more small-scale stations on FM. The future of BBC local radio on FM is likely to vary from station to station. Those stations with solid digital coverage may leave FM, whereas other stations will need to keep FM transmitters in order to plug the gaps in their digital coverage, particularly in those places where the boundaries between BBC local stations' coverage areas do not match the multiplex coverage boundaries, such as Slough. Large commercial stations Larger scale commercial stations may make a decision on cost-benefit terms to close their FM transmitters once the majority of listeners have migrated to digital. Alternatively, if digital capacity remains limited, the commercial broadcasters may decide to keep their FM transmitters, but carry separate stations once most listeners can receive digital as well as FM. A third alternative is that the regulator may take a number of the larger commercial stations off FM to make room for more community and small-scale commercial stations. Whatever happens, it is unlikely that commercial radio will continue to simulcast on DAB and FM once about 90% of radios are able to receive digital transmissions.

Ofcom FM licensing 2004 Ofcom DAB and AM 2005 Future of DAB Future of AM BBC music radio Features index

Ofcom FM licensing 2004 Ofcom DAB and AM 2005 Future of DAB Future of AM BBC music radio Features index