The Development of DAB Digital Radio in the UK

Abstract

This article examines the cultural, economic and political pressures and influences that determined the adoption of the ‘European’ technical system of digital radio in the UK. Debates over the potential of the new technology to expand both programming content and the range of individuals, companies and organizations with access to radio broadcasting were curtailed in favour of a bureaucratic and technocratic approach to media policy and a desire by the European Commission to establish a new product for the consumer electronics market that would be developed and made in Europe. The article shows that the development of the new system resulted in a ‘forced marriage’ between the BBC and the commercial sector and that the convergence between DAB and other ‘platforms’ has profound implications for the relationship between public service broadcaster, government and industry. Furthermore, in order to encourage the larger commercial radio groups to commit themselves to the new technology, they were granted new and unprecedented control over content regulation. This had the effect of further consolidating the hold of dominant interests in the UK radio sector and stifling new initiatives and approaches to the medium. Finally, the article analyses the extent to which DAB digital radio has succeeded in establishing itself in the UK media landscape against strong competition from other, converging technologies.