After 18 months of consideration the Swedish Parliament’s Committee on Digital Radio proposes a gradual expansion of digital radio in Sweden. On 18 February the committee submitted its final report to the government.
“It’s very constructive that a broad political majority want both Swedish Radio and the commercial stations to make the transition to digital radio,” said Peter Örn, Director General of public broadcaster Swedish Radio. “Now we hope that the government will support the proposal and parliament can pass the necessary legislation by the end of the year, so we can expand our digital broadcasts as early as 2005.”
The committee was faced with three alternatives: a rapid expansion of DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting), continued test broadcasts, or abandoning digital radio transmissions. Since 1995 Swedish Radio has been conducting Sweden’s only test broadcasts of digital radio channels.
The proposal calls for a gradual expansion of digital radio for both Swedish Radio and commercial radio. The broadcasters themselves will determine the pace of expansion. Today Swedish Radio’s digital broadcasts reach 35 percent of Sweden’s population, in the three large metropolitan areas and the northern city of Luleå. A new evaluation in 2008 will determine how well the radio industry has succeeded in attracting Swedish radio listeners to digital radio. Under the proposal Swedish Radio is allocated the entire capacity of a national multiplex, which has room for 5-7 national channels. Commercial radio, which today does not broadcast in digital mode, would be allocated two-thirds of the capacity in the 19 regional DAB ensembles, which will give the opportunity for both local and national broadcasts.
But the report says both the radio industry and politicians believe the transition from analog FM radio to digital radio will take a relatively long time. “It will certainly be 15 years before most radio listeners have replaced their analogue FM receivers with digital radio receivers”, believes Swedish Radio Director General Peter Örn.
Radio Sweden is a member of the AIB.