BBC Three to return in January 2022 as broadcast channel

[Deleted member 473]

I am so glad my house is detached and I am no longer a slave to social media. Am I allowed to say slave?

 

[Black Hole]

Always. If we go woke, I'll defect.

 

[prpr]

There are always exceptions, but if we sort-of agree that BBC3 programming is aimed at a younger audience, and agree that younger audiences tend to consume by random access and regard linear schedules as outmoded, then clearly there is little point allocating broadcast bandwidth to it.

Apparently the last year has seen "young people's" consumption of linear television increase, so I guess that's one reason it's being done.
Another is that the spare bandwidth has just been sitting there doing nothing for most of the time (being padded with null packets), except for the two hour usage from the kids channels which will now be cut again.

 

[trog]

Just to get things clear as "teenagers" and "youth" keeps getting mentioned, the demographic that BBC3 is aimed at is 16-35 year olds. That is a far larger part of the population than 56-75 year olds. It is not replacing anything apart from a hour or so of kids TV but rather than embrace new content that serves an age group that is underserved these miserable old sods begrudge it taking up any air time.
"They don't even cater for me. Where are the science programs? Nowhere. Where are the arts programs? A few on BBC4. My needs are as relevant as anyone else's."
Sorry but its not all about you old man and your demands but feel free to take your own advice and seek what you want online.

 

[trog]

Sine24? It looks like senility is already knocking on your door.

 

[Deleted member 473]

Interesting. So the return of BBC 3 to linear may coincide with the relaxation of restrictions on social gatherings, and their return to non linear viewing.

 

[trog]

Interesting. Someone is now stooping so low as to use the easing of the Covid crisis in a desperate attempt to add validity to their wish to deny a large part of the population from regaining linear content even though its inclusion does not deprive him in any way. I guess that starting a thread to revel in the negativity of current affairs is not enough to satisfy the Grinch.

 

[Black Hole]

DAB was a waste of time and money, too patchy to be useful. In the places you can receive DAB, you can probably listen online. Just replace one patchy service with another.

I get annoyed when the DAB drops out in my car (which it often does on the M4 north of Bristol). I can switch to FM, but I find that when DAB is unreliable so is FM!

What is going on? Is the FM network now worse than it used to be, or has my JVC/Kenwood after-market car audio actually got a crap tuner?!

 

[gomezz]

Our new work vans have DAB radios which get solid reception where I live in comparison to my car DAB radio and all my house DAB radios apart from the living room one which takes an aerial feed from the TV aerial downlead. Also patchy reception on my personal DAB radio which I use to listen to the test cricket when at work and out of the van making a delivery. Annoying that I always seems to get a delivery route locally when wanting to do this rather than delivering around the next town over where reception is much stronger.

 

[prpr]

Is the FM network now worse than it used to be, or has my JVC/Kenwood after-market car audio actually got a crap tuner?!

It's certainly the case that on my (then) new car with FM/DAB, the FM was markedly worse than on my old car which only had FM (there's a really horrid bit in the hill shadow around the area of the split section between M5 J19/20).
It is difficult to say whether it is the aerial or the tuner though. I just left it on Auto, which probably means DAB mostly, and it seems to cope.

 

[Black Hole]

there's a really horrid bit in the hill shadow around the area of the split section between M5 J19/20

I don't go that way very often

 

[Deleted member 473]

We have excellent DAB reception at home, using built in aerials on home radios, and a small twisty aerial on the car.

Drive 4 miles into the Peak District, though, and that's it. The radio switches to FM, and, as I have mentioned before, the sound level drops about 5dB. There is no separate volume control on DAB and FM, so you reach for the volume control and a few miles later get blasted as DAB returns for a few metres, before going again.

So, round town, we will have a DAB only channel on, but driving out, we are really stuck with one of the FM channels.

Am I right in thinking that DAB is all or nothing? That to get decent reception everywhere, you just have to have a better aerial?

 

[Black Hole]

Am I right in thinking that DAB is all or nothing?

As in "digital"? Yes.

That to get decent reception everywhere, you just have to have a better aerial?

No. To get better DAB everywhere, they need more transmitters.

There is no separate volume control on DAB and FM

My audio has relative source level buried in the settings.

 

[Owen Smith]

They can't put more DAB transmitters up. The national DAB multiplexes are all Single Frequency Networks and the BBC one is reaching the point of self interference ie. if you add another transmitter on the same frequency, interference with the old transmitters results in poorer reception almost everywhere. There are some places where more transmitters could be put in, but not many. Do not expect wholesale improvements to DAB reception at this stage in proceedings.

Personally I half expect FM to outlast DAB. FM's coverage is better, and DAB can be replaced by mobile broadband.

 

[Black Hole]

The national DAB multiplexes are all Single Frequency Networks

Which I have repeatedly opined is a bad idea.

Personally I half expect FM to outlast DAB.

But the FM broadcast network is near the end of its service life and will have to be scrapped or have major investment.

 

[Owen Smith]

We don't have sufficient spectrum allocated for several national DAB multplexes as multi frequency networks. We might not even have enough spectrum for one DAB MFN, or if we did it might consume all the spectrum currently being used for local DAB muxes.

 

[Owen Smith]

There are sufficient cars on the roads with only FM radios, combined with DAB reception generally being worse in cars than FM, that I think it will be very politically difficult to switch off FM. No date for FM switch off is currently set, it has been kicked into the long grass. So I suspect there will have to be investment of some sort, though I have no independent evidence of what the current state of the FM broadcast network is.

The replacement for FM is mobile broadband, but we're not quite there yet and cars don't have them fitted. Not everyone likes fiddling with their phone while driving.

 

[Black Hole]

The replacement for FM is mobile broadband, but we're not quite there yet

That's not a replacement, any more than cable TV is a replacement for broadcast TV.

 

[Owen Smith]

That's not a replacement, any more than cable TV is a replacement for broadcast TV.

I agree with you, but that won't stop it happening.

 

[Deleted member 473]

My listening on car FM consists of Radio4, Radio3, Classic. There is no news channel, so occasionally we listen to Times on DAB. If I feel in a silly mood, I also enjoy Radio4 Extra on DAB.

The car radio is generally set to DAB for convenience, there are no mixed presets, but DAB regularly switches to FM, else goes silent, if we drive West.