| PrimeTime leaves DAB22nd May 2006 The PrimeTime radio station ceased transmitting on the Digital One national DAB multiplex on 15th May. What seems to have happened is that Digital One wants to reclaim capacity on its multiplex so that it can be used for mobile TV channels for the forthcoming ultra-low picture and sound quality Virgin Mobile mobile TV service -- they only use 59 kbps to encode both video and audio, which is even lower than the bit rate used for a poor sounding mono radio stations! So when PrimeTime's contract was up for renewal Digital One seems to have decided to set the carriage charge so high that Primetime couldn't possibly afford it, thus reclaiming the capacity by stealth. PrimeTime is still transmitting on digital satellite -- and it's
transmitted at 192 kbps on satellite whereas it was only 128 kbps on
DAB. And although many people seem to think that you have to have a
Sky subscription to receive channels from satellite, all of the UK
radio stations on digital satellite are 'free-to-air', which means
that you don't need a subscription. There's a lot of free-to-air TV
channels as well on digital satellite, see this list
of FTA TV and radio channels on satellite.
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