Radio 5 Sports Extra Reducing Quality of Radios 3 & 4 on DAB

23rd June 2004

In case any of you are wondering why the audio quality of Radio 3 is reduced in the daytime, or Radio 4 is reduced to mono in the evenings, then there's a simple answer: Radio 5 Sports Extra is on-air a lot at the moment carrying commentaries of both the football European Championships and Wimbledon. Due to the excessive number of services carried on the BBC DAB multiplex then whenever Radio 5 Sports Extra is on-air then either Radio 3 or Radio 4 have to reduce their bit rate in order to accommodate it.

For a long time now, the BBC use the following rules to change the bit rates of Radios 3 or 4 when Radio 5 Sports Extra goes on-air:

if Radio 5 Sports Extra is on-air in the evening after 5pm then Radio 4 is reduced to 80 kbps mono
if Radio 5 Sports Extra is on-air in the daytime up to 5pm then Radio 3 is reduced to 160kbps
if Radio 5 Sports Extra and Radio 4's LW secondary service are both on air at the same time then Radio 3 is reduced to 160kbps, Radio 4 is reduced to 80kbps mono and Radio 5 Live is reduced to 64kbps

Radios 3, 4 and 5 on Freeview and digital satellite are unaffected by Radio 5 Sports Extra being on-air, and use permanent bit rates of 192kbps, 192kbps and 96kbps respectively, which are higher bit rates -- and hence have a higher audio quality -- than are used for the same stations on DAB even when Radio 5 Sports Extra is off-air.

The architect of the new BBC services, Simon Nelson -- who has since been promoted to Controller of Radio & Music Interactive at the BBC, basically the person in charge of DAB -- called the ability to reduce bit rates to fit in extra services "a very powerful thing for a broadcaster to do" (quote is from a Radio 4 Feedback programme in 2002). I call that spin, and in reality it's nothing more than robbing Peter to pay Paul.

In the same Feedback programme Simon Nelson also blatantly lied when asked why Radio 4 sometimes has to be reduced to mono. His answer was the following:

"it's because the programme has been made in mono" (audio clip - 265 KB)

This was simply a lie, and he knew very well it was a lie.

Simon Nelson appeared on Feedback on Radio 4 in 2003 to, again, answer complaints about audio quality on DAB, to which he responded with his usual spin, and then ended the interview with the following classic comment:

"and the message we have to get across is that for the vast majority of people, the sound quality people will get from their DAB radio will be vastly superior to anything they've ever had from their FM radio". (bold type denotes emphasis added by Simon Nelson)

which, again, is a blatant lie, because the audio quality of BBC DAB stations are significantly lower than they are on FM.

Because Feedback on Radio 4 is a forum for listeners that have complaints to have them answered by BBC staff then lying on Feedback is, in my opinion, extremely arrogant, and I feel that Simon Nelson should resign for his actions.

Thankfully, the BBC's new Director General, Mark Thompson, has acknowledged that the BBC can seem to be arrogant when viewed from the outside (he was previously the chief exec of Channel 4), and promised in a speech to BBC staff yesterday to change the way complaints are handled:

"It's also about a different attitude to complaints. We want to begin with the presumption that the licence payer is right not wrong."

which is a refreshing change from the way complaints by licence-fee payers regarding DAB have been handled by people under the management of Simon Nelson, and if Mark Thompson is serious about these changes then I think he should sack Simon Nelson as soon as possible, because I think Simon Nelson is simply unable to tell the truth on the subject of the audio quality on DAB.