What Lord Clement-Jones (right) described as "the unedifying prospect of a wash-up stitch-up between the Conservative and Labour Benches on many elements of the Bill. Allied to the lack of time was Government's unwillingness in some cases to consider amendments or to give assurances that would have delivered a sensible, consensus " puts the Digital Economy Act ("a bad day for democracy" a "spur to action for creative industries"?) on the Statute books.

In all the aired  views  and reports , only The Guardian spelt out the 45 clauses and noted their final fates  which was welcomed by the creative industries and ardently opposed by internet freedom campaigners and consumer rights groups.

The Bill implements aspects of Government policy on digital media set out in the ‘Digital Britain’ White Paper published in June 2009.

Key areas
• requires Ofcom to report on communications infrastructure and media content
• imposes obligations on internet service providers to reduce online copyright infringement
• allows the Secretary of State to intervene in internet domain name registration
• requires Channel Four to provide public service content on a range of media
• provides more flexibility over the licensing of Channel 3 and Channel 5 services
• modifies the licensing regime to facilitate switchover to digital radio
• allows variation of the public service provision in Channel 3 and 5 licences
• provides Ofcom with additional powers in relation to electromagnetic spectrum access
• extends the range of video games that are subject to age-related classification
• includes non-print formats in the public lending right payment scheme

Following amendments in the House of Commons Committee Stage, the Bill no longer provides for the appointment of providers of regional and local news. Provisions in relation to extending copyright licensing and orphan works have also been removed.

DEB & DAB
Possibly one of the least publicised impact of the Act is the knell for analogue radio, despite what Electronics Weekly notes was a well balanced House of Lords report questioning the wisdom of moving all national and regional radio broadcasting to DAB consigning some 100m FM:AM radios to landfill by 2015.

Left: Analogue versus digital

The main reason for its switch off is to cut broadcast costs as many stations are simulcasted on FM and DAB. Licensing VHF spectrum is only likely to raise a fraction of the 3G sell-off. It may be a plus for decode chips and module manufacturers in particular Frontier Silicon but statistics analysis is interesting.

"An analysis of digital versus analogue radios sold in 2009 shows that, in the category of standalone radios, also known as kitchen radios, digital sets accounted for 63% of all sales," but those figures include radios which have both digital and analogue tuners as most DAB radios now on sale incorporate an FM tuner.

And while this statistic for kitchen radios suggests a major shift in listening habits, Grant Goddard, an independent radio analyst, points out that, if other types of radio are taken into account - for example, portable handheld radios, clock radios, mobile phones and hi-fi systems - the picture is very different. In 2009, sales of digital radios made up only 28% of total radio sales."

Cambridge Consultants (CCL) with consumer and wireless product expertise, and the Wi-Fi enabled internet radio concept called Iona (Wi-Fi radio was largely absent from the Digital Britain report) also questioned the approach taken in the Government's Digital Economy Bill.

"Many of today's radio listeners in the UK are satisfied with FM most of the time, only listening to two or three stations. They will only make a switch if there is a much more compelling reason than what is currently argued for DAB. Hence, proposing a switchover to DAB without considering the merits of IP based radio services is premature," CCL commercial director, Duncan Smith (right) is reported saying.

Both analogue and digital systems are subject to limitations in resolution and bandwidth.

A comparable performing digital system is more complex and requires more bandwidth than its analog counterpart.

Though analogue may be fast being pushed into a sunset industry, as such may prove a thrawn survivor.