BBC DAB: very poor audio quality on music stations and stereo content in mono - no extra national DAB capacity available

Now that the RRC-06 has concluded (see below for details), and the UK is getting one, not two, new national commercial DAB multiplexes, it is now virtually certain that the BBC will not get any additional national DAB capacity, in which case the BBC will be forced to continue broadcasting its music radio stations at low audio quality and transmitting stereo content in mono, such as on BBC7, Asian Network and Radio 4. 

The problem is that while there was a glimmer of hope that the BBC would be able to acquire additional capacity if there were 2 new national commercial multiplexes, it is extremely unlikely that they'll be able to acquire any now that there's only going to be 1 new national multiplex.

A consortium led by Channel 4 is planning to bid for the new national commercial multiplex licence, and the commercial radio groups don't want Channel 4 to enter the commercial radio business, so they're now planning a rival bid. 

Firstly, the commercial radio groups are all vehemently opposed to the BBC getting any additional national capacity, so if they're awarded the national commercial multiplex licence they will make sure the BBC has no chance of acquiring any new capacity, so the only chance of the BBC getting any is if Channel 4 wins the bid. And even then, it is very unlikely that the BBC will get any capacity, because the new multiplex will allow 8 new national stations to launch (the rest fo the capacity will be used for low picture quality mobile TV channels), and whichever consortium wins the licence for the multiplex, there will be plenty of takers for the 8 new channel slots, so there won't be any capacity left over for the BBC - if there is any capacity left over it really will only be scraps, and definitely nowhere near enough to solve the problems with the audio quality of the BBC music stations and the issue with transmitting stereo content in mono. 

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