Uncertainty around DAB and the costs involved in launching digital radio operations persist…
— 4Radio: Channel 4 assures the multi-channel radio operation it planned to launch on the second DAB multiplex will go ahead – but boss Natalie Schwartz is not saying exactly how. 4Radio is finding setup costs as high as GCap warned when it decided to sell its stake in the first DAB multiplex and offload two DAB stations. 4Radio won the auction for the second multiplex last year but reports suggest it could back out by instead pooling transmission capability with new GCap owner Global. Via Guardian. Ofcom radio and multimedia head Peter Davis is not ruling out reconfiguring the multiplexes.
— Networking: Elsewhere, a spectacular statement from Davis today (via Journalism.co.uk): “Jobs in radio are not under threat from the increasing trend towards networked content … where shared content is broadcast by different stations within the group.” That’s despite what we know to be a growing round of redundancies at GCap stations.
— Rajar: Radio audience measurer Rajar is planning to replace its archaic diary-based listener recording system with a website, allowing its 130,000 data subjects to fill in online forms, NMA says. Still not too much activity around recording online listeners, though – Rajar’s first ever online radio survey was a one-off it published in February.