MUX Co - how DAB multiplexes go on the air, and their cost

2 years is the time limit for FM stations, so yeah, I agree with the sentiment, should be two years and then re-licence, but here’s the thing. Diamond FM was licenced in 2006 for Plymouth’s second ILR, and Radio Plymouth didn’t get on air until February 2010, so it was almost 4 years even under the current rules.

Somerset was also a MuxCo licence, and they’ve made no progress there as far as I can tell.

It is indeed disappointing, not only to you but to us. We’re a multiplex operator and we like to operate multiplexes. If we don’t launch then we don’t make any money.

Multiplexes only work when there are service providers. Generally there’s the existing main local FM and AM operator, occasionally some smaller commercial operators, the BBC and some new services.

Post the award of our multiplexes a few things happened:
1. The vast majority of local radio stations changed hands – Global, Bauer, TLRC etc – this meant that they revisited their strategies quite significantly
2. There was a new Government, who had a different view on radio
3. The BBC had its finances cut and also had to take on new responsibilities – like the World Service – changing hundreds of millions of pounds of their budgets
4. There was a big change in the economy after the financial crisis.

Collectively these things made launching new multiplexes very hard. It didn’t just affect us – Arqiva (who’s a much bigger company and can launch things much cheaper as they’re a transmitter company) – had also paused their roll out.

The big delay was a conversation – the MoU – between the larger radio groups, the BBC, the Government and the multiplex operators about how to get coverage to 97%+ and who was going to pay for it. Many felt it was pointless proceeding with DAB roll-out until that was sorted out.

Unfortunately that ‘many’ was most of our service providers. If we had carried on regardless the multiplexes would have been empty, we would have gone bust, and they would have been re-advertised. Any new operator would still have to wait for SPs to want to come on. After lots of meetings this was resolved in the middle of last year.

Since then there’s been a joint planning group, chaired by Ofcom, which has been restructuring multiplex areas, changing frequencies and planning how we get to 97% coverage. This has had a big effect on how we build out the multiplexes, it’s meant that we’ve had to re-plan all of our areas and in many cases will be launching with more transmitters (and often different ones) to our initial plans. All of this takes time which has, once again, delayed things.

As part of the MoU ourselves and Arqiva were asked to launch five multiplexes by the end of this year. In reality many more will be launched – Oxford, HBB, Northants, Wrexham and Chester, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Mid and West Wales, Derby and Surrey. Ofcom have given us instructions about when the other outstanding multiplexes need to be launched (use them of lose them).

For us North Yorks, Somerset, Lincolnshire and North Wales have some slight complications (compared to the others) that we’re working on overcoming so we can work to get them on-air next.

Matt
MuxCo

Whilst I agree with what Matt says on pretty much most of the above, I have to take issue where he says that Arqiva are:

a much bigger company and can launch things much cheaper as they’re a transmitter company

This statement applies that Arqiva give itself some kind of preferential treatment. I know that first hand, having been in charge of Arqiva’s local multiplexes there was absolutely no kind of preferential treatment to NOW Digital compared to any other external customer.

Ash – rather than the transmitters it’s probably more the structures that help Arqiva. It will be much easier for Arqiva to negotiate with themselves in contrast with another operator who would need to go on bended knee with a big bag of cash to pay for access, and probably still get a lower position on the mast.

I still find it hard to understand why access to installed Muxes cost so much though. In theory the fixed costs should be split between many stations, and for the programme feed there are many technical solutions nowadays that need not cost a lot. It’s a shame because if the cost could be dropped by say 50% (ideally more) there could be a flourishing scene on DAB. That’s one of the reasons why FM is so much more appealing to smaller broadcasters – it’s much cheaper, but unfortunately demand exceeds capacity. If DAB could be made more affordable it could mop-up some of that unfulfilled demand. I guess it’s a bit of cart and horse situation though when deciding whether or not to deploy in a given area…

Please may I say thank you to Matt for his posting which was both helpful and informative. Not knowing all the ins and outs of getting multiplexes launched one cannot readily understand and also appreciate the technical and financial difficulties that can be encounterd. It’s gone too far down the line now, and probably infringed some EU regulation, but I think the role out of DAB should have been done in the same way as UHF tv with one transmitter provider and operator backed by government money until the network was up and operational. That is probably a too simplistic way of looking at it. I just hope that the current re-organiseation of frequencies and the closing of some regional multiplexes will in the medium term help the situation and that these multiplexes that people have been eagerly waitng for will come on air soon.

I’m still surprised that nobody has done a permanently LPDAB Mux in this country. I’m willing to give a hand. I can help from siting the transmitter, equipment through to the licensing process. Plus it won’t cost as much as a multiplex operator. It would be a smaller coverage area though.

I can understand that though. A lot of Band III has been freed up in some parts of the country to conform with Band III in the rest of Europe hence the reorganisation of Mux frequencies.

Peter – I’d be interested to chat about this – maybe offline. I was not aware the licensing process permitted/encouraged LP DAB. Is there spectrum available? I agree the technical bit, whilst not trivial, will not be that difficult. This might be an interesting avenue to explore. It’s probably not the best technology to use for small coverage areas because you are likely to end-up with unused capacity on the multiplex – but at least the station could use the very highest bit rate and claim better quality than the others!

If you don’t ask you don’t get. I’ll have a go at enquiring. I know few countries have done it. We need to get together as many stations interested in one area to take it further.

Anyway here is my email if anyone would be interested: peteratengineeringradio.co.uk (replace at with @)