Thursday, 4 February 2010

Hi Richard

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/ces/6944266/CES-2010–3D-TVs-on
-sale-

in-UK-by-April.html

By the way i am afraid the link you provided doesn't seem to work

It's one of those e-mail things, well unless you use move away from plain text. The link is OK http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/ces/6944266/CES-2010–3D-TVs-on-sale- in-UK-by-April.html

But you need to copy the entire link into your browser,

Here is a short link to the same piece:
http://is.gd/7FKaC
Try that Sir.

but there is something here from the BBC,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8447432.stm

Still can't see high volumes – here's another problem. Broadcasters have to consider the growing, rapidly, of people watching via laptops or multimedia phones.
So to provide a 3D service could push costs and yet the younger generations, I use the plural as they are a number now, will not view such broadcasts.

Regards
Eric

Sir Terry Wogan signed off from his BBC Radio 2 breakfast show in style, with 8.10 million listeners tuning in to his show every week during the last quarter of 2009, matching his previous record reach (Q1 2008).

Sir Terry announced his decision to stand down from the show on 7 September and bid an emotional farewell to listeners during the last Wake Up To Wogan on 18 December.

He begins his new, two-hour show, Weekend Wogan – live from the 350-seat Radio Theatre in BBC Broadcasting House, London – on Sunday 14 February at 11.00am.

Tim Davie, Director, BBC Audio & Music, said: "Terry is a legendary broadcaster and these figures show his popularity has never been higher. I'm now looking forward to tuning in to his new show later this month, along with all the TOGs.

"I'm also pleased to see growth amongst our digital-only stations and robust figures across the BBC Radio portfolio."

During the measurement period (21 September – 20 December 2009), all BBC Radio had a weekly reach of 33.26 million (from 33.52m last year and 33.58m last quarter) and a share of 55.2% (from 55.7% last year and 55.0% last quarter), according to data released today by RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research Ltd).

BBC Radio 1 drew 10.76 million listeners per week in the quarter, compared to 10.58 million last year and 11.11 million last quarter. Its share – at 9.8% – is slightly down on last quarter (9.9%) and last year (10.1%).

The Chris Moyles Show now has 7.24 million listeners – from 7.04 million last quarter and 7.30 million last year.

Radio 2 has a weekly reach of 13.47 million listeners – steady on 13.46 million last year and 13.62 million last quarter. Share – at 16.5% – is up on both the quarter (15.9%) and the year (15.8%) and matches the network's record high.

BBC Radio 3 has a weekly reach of 1.87 million listeners – from last year's 1.98 million and last quarter's high of 2.19 million. The network's share is 1.1% (down from 1.3% last year and 1.4% last quarter).

BBC Radio 4's reach is 9.84 million, up from last year (9.81m) and down from last quarter's record (10.21m). Share is the network's joint highest at 12.5%, up from 12.4% last quarter and last year.

BBC Radio 5 Live (including Sports Extra) has 6.19 million listeners – compared to 6.11 million last year and 6.53 million last quarter. BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra contributed 663,000 in the quarter. Share for Radio 5 Live (including Sports Extra) is 4.6% – down from 5.0% last year and 5.3% last quarter.

In digital-only services, BBC 6 Music's audience grew to 695,000 listeners – up on last quarter's 624,000 and last year's 619,000.

BBC Radio 7 also added listeners posting a weekly reach of 931,000 – up both on last quarter (884,000) and last year (850,000).

The BBC Asian Network remains steady with 360,000 listeners, as did BBC 1Xtra with a reach of 531,000.

The BBC World Service has a reach of 1.23 million.
Notes to Editors

The remaining data can be found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2010/02_february/04 /rajar.shtml

As predicated here by so many people DAB looks set to be the BSB of the digital revolution

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/02/04/bbc_dab_no_listeners/

Ah the good old Register, where many a friend of mine contribute.

I think the logic of services being looked at for poor audience numbers makes sense. Let's face it, if BBC Radio Christopher only had 70,000 listeners and was on a national DAB service it would be cheaper to ship USB sticks – or move it to the Net.

Now in an attempt to balance, here's the Digital Radio Group views and it claims to have steady/consistent growth – they can't both be right? Have highlighted the start of the key numbers. If true the two pieces of data conflict like mad.

Regards
Eric

DIGITAL RADIO LISTENING AND OWNERSHIP INCREASES
* Listening share via digital platforms increases 14% year on year * Year on year DAB listening and ownership increases 20% and 13% respectively
The percentage share of all radio listening via a digital platform has increased by 14% in the past year to 20.9% from 18.3% and remained steady quarter on quarter, according to the latest RAJAR figures released today. Of all digital platforms, DAB has performed most strongly, increasing in both listening and ownership, year on year and quarter on quarter.
DAB's share of listening has increased to 13.7% from 11.4% a year ago, and from 13.3% in the last 3 months. The number of adults living in a household with a DAB receiver has increased by 13% or 2 million year on year to 17.1m from 15.1m, and by half a million in the past 3 months from 16.6m in Q3 2009.
With plans for digital switchover now being debated in Parliament, the longer term trends are also encouraging: *DAB ownership* has trebled in the last 4 years, from 11.1% in Q4 2005 to 33.4% in Q4 2009, with over a third of adults now owning a DAB set at home.

Ford Ennals, Chief Executive, Digital Radio UK, commented:
"It's encouraging to see steady and sustained growth in both digital set listening and ownership, and stability across all platforms. It's also notable that analogue listening now accounts for only two thirds of all listening, and within homes this figures is lower still at 54%. Given that 75% of all new portable radios purchased are digital, this is no surprise.
"Whilst these figures are a platform for strong growth in 2010, the radio industry has made it clear that without significant change we will not see the step change in listening habits needed to fully deliver the benefits of digital. The Digital Economy Bill is an essential first step in making this happen and we are now working on plans to improve coverage, get digital radios in more cars, work with broadcasters to deliver more exciting content and services, and develop integrated consumer communication campaigns to raise awareness and understanding of digital radio. Only by making these changes will we see a rapid move to digital."
 

Source: RAJAR / Ipsos – MORI / RSMB, period ending December 2009, all stations and groups results are reported on their specified reporting period and TSA.

It's always a difficult call as to if you should pull a service from a fledgling platform , essectively condoming that platform to die. The trouble in this case is that DAB is by no means a new platform – it's been around for almost two decades.The great difficulty here is that at about the same time that people actually started buying DAB receivers in any numbers , people also discovered internet radio and quite quickly found internet radio offered a lot more and better sound quality – only lack of portability for many being the only obstacle. Despite a few innovative services on DAB , the whole platform just lacks the wow factor , both in performance and range of services. Basically it's been overtaken before it could get established. In theory , if the BBC do pull some of their services , they could try to improve whats left by using the freed up capacity to increase the bitrates of the remaining stations – 192k should make a big difference for MP2 , but i doubt that will happen in the real world.

You can't have growth and also stability. There has been no significant growth in the last quarter in digital listening.

It's also notable that analogue listening now accounts for only two thirds of all
listening, and within homes this figures is lower still at 54%.

It's also notable that Ennals, reportedly paid £150,000 a year by the Government, deliberately, or through ignorance, does not mention the fact that 1.7% of listening is digital unspecified and 12.5% is unspecified platform.

In fact AM/FM listening has gone up from 66.1% (+ much unspecified listening of 13%) in Q3 2009 to 66.6% (+ much unspecified platform listening) in Q4 2009.

Source: RAJAR Listening by platform on this page: http://www.rajar.co.uk/content.php?page=listen_market_trends

I think that's the big problem, bitrates.
With respect the whole notion of 192, the way it was sold to keep techy folks happy in the beginning, is barking.
DAB should ever have been sold as a wondrous audio device, it should have been sold as 128 music and 56 for speech.
I can still remember standing under the HUGE painting of Lord Reith when all the spin about 192 was spun and thinking – don't think so.
But what would I know.
They should look at how to decrease the access costs to broadcasters and try to offer audio quality in tune with the public. In another place DAB was likened to BSB – that was over engineered and way above that which regular consumers wanted.
Give people what they really, really want and they'll buy.
As it goes, there is a manufacturers definition of a product making it. BSB never got there, DAB is past the point of no return.
Equally, it is a shame that costs for portable internet are still daft. In my last vehicle I had an old laptop in the boot connected to mobile internet so I could listen to the radio I wanted – it worked well.
And thinking about it, it's the sort of tech that today you can buy in the form of a netbook for not much more than a wi-fi radio, I guess that's a numbers issue though in terms of manufacture.
Anyway, the subject is now over to when, for digital, not if.

Eric

From the award winning Christopher England blog: The whole "Climate change" scare is pretend and really about population control – http://tumblr.com/xjb640lyt

Which deal are you thinking about? The Guinness sponsorship is probably worth a net in excess of 3Million of your Earth Pounds. Then there are the medical referrals, the sex toys, the grants, etc., etc.

I've known Chris now for long enough

It's not me, that'll be somebody else with an exact name and personality match. Don't trust him!

(all though I wouldn't recognise
him if I passed him in the street!)

That's how you ain't sussed I'm just over here watching you. Look to your left and give a big wave to the camera...!

to know that there must be be a
benefit to you both in these postings!

The true benefit is in seeing Loving Awareness in action between me and Mr Conway.

Depending on where this technology goes (and it's dangerously close to my heart so I too have to be 3D transmission ready), you don't have to have a new telly. The initial version of it just requires you wear the glasses with your existing telly just tuned to a Sky 3D channel, but the better, or should I say "future" versions will require a new telly. I think it'll depend which system becomes the adopted one. All of them need you to wear glasses of some type and I'm not sure that this glasses wearing idea will catch on for those who just have the TV on all night. I think people will use them when gaming and watching special movies, and sport in 3D will get a following, but I don't think it'll cross over to day-to-day telly viewing.

Now, if they could invent a way to do 3D without you having to wear glasses....!