Swedish Government Pulls Plug on DAB Expansion

Swedish Radio are reporting that Sweden's Minister for Culture Leif Pagrotsky has announced that he has turned down Swedish Radio's request for additional investment for DAB.

Swedish Radio, who are Sweden's public service radio broadcaster, wanted the money to roll-out DAB from the current 35% population coverage it already has and to market the system to consumers, but the Minister has said that DAB is too expensive, and that he recommends Swedish Radio should make more use of the Internet for distribution and podcasting, mobile phone networks (DVB-H?), the digital TV platforms and cheaper digital radio systems, instead. The latter probably refers to DRM+, because it is far cheaper to transmit than the ultra-inefficient DAB system.

It's not absolutely clear what will now happen to DAB in Sweden, but I'm sure more news will emerge later today or tomorrow, because the official announcement will be made tomorrow.

So, Finland has switched off DAB, the five largest French radio broadcasters have all rejected using DAB because it is outdated and inefficient (originally it was just the four largest radio broadcasters, but the fifth-largest is participating in a trial of digital radio via DVB-H now as well), the Australian minister for communications said it would be "irresponsible" to use DAB because it is out-of-date and will soon be replaced by a new DAB version 2 standard and Canada have effectively sidelined DAB to being a minor system after they licensed two satellite digital radio systems.

It's not looking very good for the DAB system, really. And it is for good reason that countries are turning their back on it; the system is now 15 years old and is outclassed by the modern digital broadcasting systems that can carry digital radio, such as DVB-H, DRM+ and DMB, as well as satellite digital radio and the US-based MediaFLO system.

The WorldDAB Forum needs to release the DAB version 2 standards as soon as possible, because otherwise more and more countries will turn their backs on the DAB system altogether, and if it's not careful WorldDAB will have to be renamed something along the lines of the "UK & Denmark DAB Forum".

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