Sunday, 10 October 2010

Why Olympic radio didn't get off the starting blocks


JC - perhaps we should have a radio FM licence during 2012 games in partnership with Panj Pani Radio?
It sounded like a champion idea – a dedicated radio station, or even a whole bunch of radio stations, broadcasting exclusively about the Olympics when the games come to London in 2012. But the ambitious Olympic radio idea fell at the first hurdle last week when Ofcom quietly pulled the plug on the plans it had announced just six months ago.
Back then there was no shortage of optimism about the new service, with Ofcom anticipating that demand would be "particularly high".
A possible sticking point was that the stations would be digital-only, as it ruled there was insufficient capacity to put them on analogue AM or FM, thereby depriving them of potentially a much wider audience. But what better shop window for digital audio broadcasting (DAB) radio – which has grown in popularity but is still far short of the critical mass required for digital switchover – than a digital-only service showcasing the biggest sporting event the capital has ever seen?

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