Radio without a license

 
Digital radio DAB opens a back door to the radio market for financially strong media companies: they can decide on the available broadcasting slots themselves. 
DAB digital radio has been on the upswing since the variety of programs began to grow. On the one hand, Swiss Radio DRS recently launched its news channel DRS 4 in the existing first program ensemble on 5 November. Secondly, eight private broadcasters were awarded a license last July. These channels will be broadcast in a new, second ensemble, which will initially go on air in the metropolitan areas of the Mittelland in autumn 2008 - at least according to current planning. However, there are still a number of unknowns. This does not mean that building permits have to be obtained for the new transmitter network, which could possibly be delayed. The program offering itself is the biggest unknown since it was decided that the program ensemble will be broadcast in the new DABplus standard. DABplus, which cannot be received with the currently available DAB devices, offers the possibility of packing around twenty stations into one ensemble - around twice as many as in the conventional DAB technology with which the existing SRG ensemble is broadcast.
Ten program slots have been allocated on DABplus so far. Firstly, two stations will come from the SRG: One of these will be "World Radio Switzerland", which cannot currently be received in German-speaking Switzerland. It is not yet clear which will be the second. Secondly, the eight newly licensed private stations will be broadcast via this second layer: Radiolab, Radio for Youngsters, Swiss Mountain Holiday Radio, SoundCity, Radio.ch, RadioJay, DJRadio deluxe and Radio Eviva. The programs are mostly backed by established radio operators and large media companies. Radio for Youngsters comes from Energy Zurich and thus from Ringier, RadioJay is also indirectly linked to Ringier via Freeflow AG, Radio.ch will be a cooperation between Radio Zürisee and the radio stations aktuell, BE1 and Pilatus, which are part of the Freie Presse Holding of NZZ, and Swiss Mountain Holiday Radio is operated by Radio Rottu Oberwallis and the Südostschweiz Media Group.
Station operator decides on programsPreparations for the new program ensemble are now well advanced. An operating company has been founded under the name SwissMediaCast AG, which will set up and operate the joint broadcasting network. Not only the companies behind the licensed channels, such as Ringier, NZZ and SRG, are involved. Other interested parties are also involved, namely radio operators from the greater Zurich area such as Tamedia and Radios Argovia and Top.
The ten licensed stations have a guaranteed right of access to the second DAB layer, which is distributed by SwissMediaCast AG. However, this is just half of the twenty channels that are technically possible. In practice, SwissMediaCast AG is free to decide on the other ten channels. By law, no licenses have to be put out to tender if more than half of the channel slots have been allocated. This is the reason why the Federal Office of Communications (Bakom) has licensed exactly eight private and two SRG channels. "The operating company should have commercial leeway in order to be able to refinance the network expansion," confirms Matthias Ramsauer, Head of the Radio and Television Division at Bakom.
SwissMediaCast AG has not yet decided which criteria it will use to allocate the available program slots. "The rules will be drawn up by the end of this year," says Günther Heuberger, Managing Director of Top-Medien and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the new operating company. However, it is already clear that the founding shareholders of the operating company have each guaranteed themselves one program slot. In fact, Tamedia will therefore also be able to broadcast a program on DABplus. However, existing FM private stations such as Tamedia's own Radio 24 will hardly be able to benefit from regional language digital broadcasting. "We are talking about digital programs," says Günther Heuberger. Preference is therefore likely to be given to programs that are based on existing programs, such as Heuberger's Top Two or the Internet music channels of Energy Zurich, but are put together specifically for digital broadcasting.
Adrian Scherrer