Archive notice: This article was originally published on January 29, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
In the past, based on joint decisions by the federal government, the states and, not least, the KEF itself, the ARD invested substantial sums in digital terrestrial radio broadcasting. If the KEF recommendation were followed, the infrastructure and transmitter networks built with that investment would now be called into question.
In contrast to the KEF, however, Germany’s public-service and private broadcasters agreed on a relaunch of digital terrestrial radio from 2009 based on the DAB system family.
Herbert Tillmann, Chairman of the Production and Technology Commission:
“ARD, Deutschlandradio and private broadcasters remain confident that the agreed relaunch of digital radio in 2009 will be successful. If the KEF recommendation is not to leave behind a technological shambles, solutions must now be developed that enable the active participation of public-service broadcasting”.
The obstacles that have so far prevented widespread adoption of DAB technology will be overcome in the foreseeable future. With the successful conclusion of the International Radiocommunication Conference in Geneva in 2006, considerable additional frequencies are available for digital terrestrial radio. Modern coding methods also enable these frequencies to be used even more efficiently. This will give the programming benefit for listeners a completely new quality, with more programmes differentiated by region as well as additional multimedia services. In addition, the previous restrictions on transmission power, which had significantly impaired reception inside buildings, will now be removed.
Against this background, a national consensus was reached on the further development of this independent terrestrial distribution channel for radio among the state media authorities, receiver and automotive manufacturers, public-service programme¬providers and private broadcasters. The ARD therefore had, and continues to have, good reasons to expect a successful relaunch in 2009.
Digitising radio distribution requires a long period and cooperation among many parties, not least from
the automotive and receiver industries, retailers and consumers. Mutual reliability and transparent decision-making are indispensable for the interaction among these different partners. Although the KEF recommendation concerns only public-service broadcasting, it has a massive impact on all other parties. It is doubtful whether the KEF procedure can be suitable for fundamental technology-policy decisions of this kind. For this reason, the ARD had already proposed to the KEF at an early stage that a single budget be defined for digital terrestrial programme distribution, allowing public-service broadcasting to respond flexibly to market developments. In doing so, the ARD assured the KEF of complete transparency.
Unfortunately, the KEF has so far been unable to follow this proposal.
The ARD is firmly convinced that digital radio based on the DAB system family will prevail. It calls on those responsible for media policy and technology to transform this element of the KEF recommendations into a con¬structive approach.
