| BBC is advertising to-be-obsolete DAB radios on TV8th December 2008 There are three major problems with the BBC's TV advertising campaign for DAB radios: Most DAB radios in the shops are not upgradeable to DAB+DAB+ will likely be introduced in the UK within the next 3 years, but the large majority of DAB radios in the shops at the moment are not upgradeable to DAB+, and the receiver manufacturers typically make it very difficult for consumers to find out whether a DAB radio is upgradeable to DAB+ or not. So the BBC's TV adverts are encouraging consumers to buy DAB portable radios that won't be able to receive DAB+ stations when they launch. It's also fair to say that now is about the worst possible time to buy a DAB radio, because over the next 12 months or so it is looking as though the large or even the vast majority of current DAB-only models will switch to supporting both DAB and DAB+. So if people waited for a few months before buying a specific DAB model they would likely be able to get the same one with support for DAB+. The reasons why it is looking very likely that current DAB-only models are going to support DAB+ over the coming months is because the Digital Radio Working Group (DRWG), whose Technical sub-group was chaired by Mark Friend, the BBC Controller in charge of digital radio, is recommeding that all digital radios should support DAB, DAB+ and DMB-Audio in future. And Frontier-Silicon, which produces around 80% of all the receiver modules for DAB radios sold in the UK, has recently released a new Venice 5.1 DAB/DAB+ module, which is a slot-in replacement for Frontier-Silicon's current best-selling Venice 5 DAB-only receiver module. Another major actor that's driving the switch to producing DAB/DAB+ receivers is that countries such as Australia and Germany are planning on launching DAB+ next year -- and France is planning on launching DMB-Audio next year, hence why the DRWG wants all receivers to include support for that (DAB-based) standard as well.
The BBC should not advertise products at allThe BBC is not meant to advertise products at all, yet the BBC's annual TV advertising campaign for DAB -- which you can watch here if you've been out of the country for the last few days and you've missed it -- is blatantly properly advertising DAB portable radios. The BBC is supposed to be platform-neutralThe BBC is not meant to favour one platform over another. So the BBC's TV adverts for DAB radios are blatantly ignoring that as well, because there is absolutely no mention of other ways of receiving digital radio in the dialogue of the TV advert -- the only mention that digital radio can even be received on other platforms is some text saying "Also available on digital TV and online" in tiny writing at the bottom of the screen right at the end of the advert. What the BBC is allowed to do on these so-called 'on-air trails' is promote its own TV and radio channels and to explain ways to receive digital TV and radio. That's how the BBC promoted digital TV, because although their digital TV adverts were clearly biased towards Freeview, because Freeview is the BBC's favoured digital TV platform (because the BBC likes to be a big fish in a small pond of channels), the adverts always clearly mentioned satellite and cable as being other ways to receive digital TV. But when it comes to DAB, the Biased Bullying Corporation cannot bring itself to inform the public that there are other ways to receive digital radio, and they especially don't want the public to find out that the audio quality of the BBC's radio stations on the digital TV platforms is higher than it is on DAB -- this is also why the BBC is currently trying as hard as it can to avoid using 128 kbps AAC for the live Internet streams, because that would mean that the live Internet streams would outclass DAB in terms of audio quality.
The BBC's massive bias towards DABThis is now the BBC's 21st advertising campaign for DAB, and the following figure nicely sums up just how biased the BBC is towards DAB:
Another thing that perfectly sums up how the BBC would like to see things happen on digital radio was when Simon Nelson, who's the ex-Controller in charge of digital radio, admitted on Feedback on Radio 4 about three years ago that:
"Of course the BBC would prefer it if everybody listened to digital radio via DAB".
Indeed they would, but that's also extremely biased, and we don't pay the BBC to push the public towards one platform over another.
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audio quality
I could see them moving the Asian Network without any problems, but it would be more difficult for them to move 2 or 3 stations, so I'll believe that when I see it, to be honest.
voiceover
"Unloved, neglected, alone, forlorn
The Christmas jumper lies unworn" etc.?
DAB
They're responsible for the current adverts on TV, so they're responsible for advising consumers to buy to-be-obsolete DAB radios as well.
Coincidentally I've just received a reply to a complaint I made to the BBC about these adverts actually being proper adverts that are advertising the products themselves. The reply starts off as follows:
"I understand that you felt that by mentioning that you can listen to our radio stations via DAB radio that this constitutes as advertising the sale of these radios."
Errrrr, no. Wrong way round. I said that by merely tacking on at the end of the advert for DAB radios the fact that you can listen to BBC stations on them doesn't alter the fact that these are proper TV adverts for DAB radios - which would cost up to £80,000 per 30-second advert when shown on ITV1.