Lack of DAB+ demand: UPC stops FM switch-off in cable network
Cable operator UPC is putting its plans to digitize radio broadcasting in the cable network on hold for the time being. Press spokesman Bernard Strapp confirmed this to the Handelszeitung.
The associated shutdown of analog FM reception is also not an issue at present. In Lucerne, a pilot test for the switchover to DAB+ has been taking place since November. In retrospect, Strapp describes this as a "one-off" project. In the run-up, this had sounded somewhat different. In the fall, UPC had announced internally that it was testing digitization "in various regions. At a later date, cable radio would then be digitized "completely.
The reason for the rethink was probably the reactions in Lucerne. Strapp describes the feedback from customers as "consistently positive. However, UPC recently communicated internally that demand for the matching DAB radios had been "very modest. This effectively means that no one in Lucerne was listening to the radio anymore. Receivers other than those sold by UPC were not compatible with the tested frequencies at all, which led the Stiftung für Konsumentenschutz to call them "set-top boxes with speakers" at the time.
