Of all the new technologies vying to provide extra bandwidth and services, digital radio seems to have been competing with the quietest voice. Digital audio broadcasting (DAB) may have been on air for nearly three years now, but the promise of extra services such as data, text, pictures and even video has so far remained elusive. But with DAB's fortunes seemingly on the up - pre-Christmas sales of digital receivers are set to double the 60,000 already sold - network operators are starting to investigate the possibilities of delivering more than just audio and text using the medium's extra bandwidth or data channels.
Two weeks ago, consumer electronics manufacturer Goodmans launched what it termed the first mass-market digital radio range offering portable and in-car CD/radio units for as little as £100. Last week Pure, one of the first digital manufacturers to come to market, said demand for its sub-£100 Evoke digital radio was outstripping supply. At the same time US motor manufacturer Ford entered the digital fray, saying it would offer DAB in-car radios as a standard extra across its range from early next year. While set and car manufacturers are concentrating on the audio benefits of digital - hiss free, automatic tuning and near-CD sound - what's exciting most commercial network operators is the potential for new subscription revenues from data channel services. UBC, which, in conjunction with GWR, launched the self-styled "world's first" digital radio data service Digizone 18 months ago, is just one of several UK operators which has developed an electronic programme guide (or EPG). Like the TV equivalent, a digital radio EPG provides "now and next" information alongside a more detailed guide to programmes, schedules and presenters.
"One of the issues we have in London is that we've got 50 different radio stations," says Matt Honey, managing director of UBC subsidiary Unique Interactive. " If you are using a digital tuner you have to scroll through all the different stations to find the one you want. With an EPG you turn on the radio and immediately pick up what channels are available, then click on that channel and see a highlight of the day's schedule. Then you could click on a particular programme and the EPG would tell you more about it or record it or store it as a favourite. It's like having the Radio Times online. We believe it will become the gateway to the world of digital radio." Capital and Chrysalis have already licensed the software, "and we are talking to all the other major groups", Honey adds.
GWR, which has also developed its own EPG software, is taking the quest for new revenues one stage further. Despite warning that radio revenues were "as volatile as ever" last week, GWR chief Ralph Bernard said the company would still be investing £4.5m in digital activities. Alongside GWR's £1.3m investment in Pure parent Imagination Technologies - a move designed to foster the development of a licence-earning low-cost digital radio chipset - the radio group has earmarked £400,000 for a pilot study that is using digital radio's data channels to broadcast content and information to mobile devices.
It's here, in the realm of so-called data-casting, that digital radio's built-in extra capacity starts to make economic sense. Rather than use the expensive 3G bandwidth to send information, GWR and other radio companies say mobiles could be equipped with a DAB chip and digital radio's data channel used to get text, pictures and even video to phones, then the 3G network used as a return path for interactivity. With digital radio multiplexes capable of sending data at rates of up to 250Kb per second - virtually double the realistic estimates of 3G rates - the theory seems to stack up. But it's a theory yet to gain acceptance from telcos and mobile operators. "The mobile operators fear digital radio because it's a threat to the outbound services over mobile airways and that's half of what they paid £22.5bn for the 3G licences for," says one senior mobile executive, who asked not to be named.
Radio groups such as UBC and GWR, however, say they are talking to mobile operators and that some sort of tie-up is inevitable. "Most of the mobile companies see digital radio as complementary because it allows them to broadcast from one point to many simultaneously," says Simon Ward, GWR's director of digital and new media.
UBC chief executive Simon Cole is equally bullish. "Economically and technically the best business model for mobile data is to have a DAB chip in a 3G phone. You then have a broadband broadcast outpath - on which you can send video clips and photos to everybody at the same time - for example at the end of a football match - and then you could use 3G for people to forward those on to other people and interact." Yet, as with 3G and broadband, as well as the plain old internet, digital radio still faces the content conundrum. What services exactly will people pay for? Here, few radio operators are prepared to stick their necks out. Must-have content they can't get anywhere else, seems to be the prevailing wisdom. "Consumerdemanded information and entertainment content," adds GWR.
Existing services, such as the UBC/GWR joint venture Digizone, offer a mix of ITN news, a Cartoon Network games service, weather and additional information on Classic FM and Core. The BBC's Vision Radio provides a similar mix of news, weather and sport. But both are PC-based and free and - with so many competing entertainment/information platforms - how successfully commercial operators can translate them to a mobile, subscription model is anyone's guess. "I have a model that on a subscriber rate of £2.99 a month with 100,000 subscribers will make me money. The question is, what is it that 100,000 people will buy and what device will they get to look at in on?" says Cole.
With radio operators concentrating on getting audio services up and running and digital radio manufacturers focusing on shifting first generation units off the shelves, the prospect of mobile data-channel services still looks a distant one. Only when, and if, handset manufacturers start equipping mobile phones with DAB chips and manufacturers start putting hard-drives and bigger screens into digital devices are datachannel services likely to become a commercial reality.
