Analysis of the scare tactics employed in the marketing of DAB radio lobbyist group Digital Radio UK to increase consumer take-up of DAB digital radio receiver hardware, written by Grant Goddard in November 2010 for Grant Goddard: Radio Blog.

1. TRICK OR TREAT? £55M TO BE
SPENT SCARING UK CITIZENS
INTO BUYING DAB DIGITAL
RADIO RECEIVERS
by
GRANT GODDARD
www.grantgoddard.co.uk
November 2010

2. 'The Daily Mail' is the perfect medium to scare middle Britain into reaching for its credit card.
So it was no surprise to read in Saturday’s edition that:
“Four out of five car radios are expected to become obsolete in less than five years,
experts warn.”
Why? Well, according to the Daily Mail, because “the traditional FM and medium-wave signal
is due to be switched off in 2015.” To back up this assertion, the Mail quoted 'Car' magazine
associate editor Tim Pollard:
“In four years’ time, 80 per cent of car stereos won’t work and many sat-navs will be
unable to receive traffic data. If you’re buying a new car, you must tick the option
specifying DAB now.”
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. As the majority of the 83 Daily Mail readers who commented online
about this article pointed out, the facts are:
 FM and AM radio are not going to be switched off;
 2015 has not been agreed as a date by anybody for anything;
 FM and AM radios will not become “obsolete.”
So why are these untruths being distributed by Car magazine and the Daily Mail? Because
they seem happy to regurgitate propaganda produced by commercial companies who, as a
last resort, are reduced to scaring the public into buying DAB radios. UK car audio fitters, UK
car radio manufacturers and UK audio retailers would all benefit financially from the public
suddenly buying DAB radios en masse. Persuasion has failed as a tactic to grow DAB radio
take-up over the last decade … so the strategy now is to scare them into putting their hands in
their pockets.
This strategy is all part of a DAB radio ‘roadmap’ developed by lobby group Digital Radio UK.
Its ‘Phase 1’ activities for 2010/1 include “stimulating the market: preparing cars” or, in plain
English, forcing DAB upon car owners through articles like the Daily Mail’s. Digital Radio UK
revels in disinformation, consistently referring to ‘digital radio’ in its recent slide presentation to
the Digital Radio Stakeholders Group, when its sole imperative is to push DAB radios.
Trick Or Treat? £55m To Be Spent Scaring UK Citizens Into Buying DAB Digital Radio Receivers page 2
©2010 Grant Goddard

3. This Digital Radio UK presentation is full of stuff that reads like it was written on the back of an
envelope in the pub one lunchtime. The industry has had almost two decades to come up with
a powerful ‘brand positioning’ for DAB, yet the best that Digital Radio UK could create is:
 “WHAT WE KNOW. We all love radio and it deserves a future. Radio needs to become
more relevant for all audiences, and only digital can do that. Digital radio is radio as you
know it, but better - and it gives you more of what you love
 KEY THOUGHT. If you love radio, you’ll love digital radio
 WHAT WE SAY. Digital radio, more to love”
Expect to see these, er, important characteristics of DAB radio espoused in a £0.5m pre-
Christmas marketing campaign that will tell consumers: “There’s a digital radio for everyone
this Christmas.”
Cynics will respond that this is because warehouses are brimming over with crates of unsold
DAB radios. 2010 must have been a disastrous year for DAB receiver sales because the
industry has kept the sales figures a closely guarded secret. Pure Digital, which accounts for
the lion’s share of DAB receiver sales, said last week that its “revenues are now expected to
show a decline compared with the first half of the previous financial year.” In 2009, total UK
unit sales of DAB radios had already fallen year-on-year [see my earlier blog].
Between now and 2015, Digital Radio UK plans to spend £55m on campaigns to try and
convince consumers once more that DAB radio is a 'must have.' At a time when budgets are
being slashed in both commercial radio and BBC radio (which fund Digital Radio UK), you
might think that somebody somewhere might ask if it is worth throwing more good money after
bad. And what is the stated objective of all this effort? According to the final slide of the Digital
Radio UK presentation:
“Our ‘destination’ is a healthier radio sector – and that’s good for everyone.”
A healthier radio sector? You must mean a more impoverished UK radio industry, it having
already thrown £1bn into the DAB black hole. You must mean digital radio stations, none of
which generate a profit because, in aggregate, they attract only 5% of radio listening. You
must mean consumers who are being lied to that their FM/AM radios will no longer work in
2015. You must mean frustrated car owners (according to Roberts Radio, there is a 35-40%
customer return rate for in-car DAB radio adapters).
How are these outcomes good for anyone other than the lobbyists and radio receiver
manufacturers whose shirts will be saved if, and only if, the public complies by rushing out to
buy lots of DAB radios?
[Should you remain unconvinced to buy a DAB radio in December, you can look forward to a
January marketing campaign that will proclaim: “If you didn’t get a digital radio for Christmas,
now’s the time.” This must be my favourite radio sales pitch of 2010.]
Trick Or Treat? £55m To Be Spent Scaring UK Citizens Into Buying DAB Digital Radio Receivers page 3
©2010 Grant Goddard

4. Trick Or Treat? £55m To Be Spent Scaring UK Citizens Into Buying DAB Digital Radio Receivers page 4
©2010 Grant Goddard
[First published by Grant Goddard: Radio Blog as 'Trick Or Treat? £55m To Be Spent Scaring UK Consumers Into
Buying DAB Radios', 22 November 2010.]
Grant Goddard is a media analyst / radio specialist / radio consultant with thirty years of
experience in the broadcasting industry, having held senior management and consultancy
roles within the commercial media sector in the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia. Details at
http://www.grantgoddard.co.uk