News

Media Broadcast has successfully completed the expansion programme of the nationwide transmitter network for the first national DAB+ programme package for 2024. An additional five new transmitter sites were added in five regions over the course of the year, ensuring even better reception of the 13 public and private programmes in the respective reception areas with immediate effect. The expansion will continue in 2025. With the completion of the expansion programme planned for 2024, the transmitter network now comprises a total of 170 locations, meaning that more than 91% of the population in Germany can receive the 13 channels at home with an indoor antenna. Area coverage for mobile reception is currently more than 97%, while motorway coverage is already over 99%, which is almost full coverage.

Radio Netwerk Nederland and 5 of the 12 licence holders of the DAB+ allotment 42 (channel 6D) have taken an important step in digital radio coverage in South Holland. By placing the transmitter on the highest point of the Waalhaven tower in Rotterdam, a large part of the region is now provided with strong and reliable DAB+ coverage. Rapid implementation was crucial because of the December period, an important time for broadcasters. In consultation, Radio Netwerk Nederland immediately drew up a plan to get the transmitter operational as soon as possible, with an emphasis on maximum coverage both indoors and on the road.

DAB+ now covers 62.2% of the population of mainland France. To give Réunion's radio stations a chance to familiarise themselves with this technology and to give the public a first taste of the advantages of DAB+, particularly sound quality, Arcom has decided to authorise a number of trials on Réunion. The trial, which began on 1 March, has already enabled more than twenty radio stations to be heard on DAB+. This experiment now marks a new stage in its roll-out, with the arrival of the Réunion La 1ère and France Inter stations on DAB+. Trials on Réunion began in March 2024 in the Saint Denis area alone. Since the beginning of November 2024, they have been extended to the south and east of the island (Tampon and Saint-André areas).

Croatia has achieved 97% DAB+ population coverage, joining the ranks of nations with extensive digital radio networks. The country currently broadcasts three public and nine commercial DAB+ stations, with more services planned, announced Jasna Vaniček-Fila, director of Croatia’s Directorate for Media and Development of Cultural and Creative Industries, at the 2024 WorldDAB Summit in Zagreb. WorldDAB President Jacqueline Bierhorst highlighted digital radio’s growth across Europe, Africa and Asia, emphasizing the need to maintain radio’s prominence, particularly in automobiles. “Working together, we can send one message to anyone and everyone around the world who needs to hear it. Broadcast radio must endure. For automakers, radio must remain prominent. We make no apologies for repeating this message, loud and proud.”

Gorka Zumeta writes: "I am left with important news about one of the recurring themes in any event dedicated to the analysis of radio in Spain, the commitment to DAB+. Spain is two decades behind on this issue that the rest of Europe is undertaking with determination and investment. Finally, even with much delay, the public radio has been launched, with the distributor Cellnex, to extend the DAB+ technology throughout Spain. The technical director of Cadena SER, Augusto Molina, stressed in his speech that SER “is in favor of DAB”, as long as a series of needs that the new scenario of its implementation are met. I think it is an important step for SER, the leading radio station, to speak out on this issue. Yes to DAB+, with conditions. Well then, let's put those conditions to the administration in order to draft a new National Digital Terrestrial Sound Broadcasting Plan."

Radio Parada from Lodz can again be listened to via BCAST's experimental multiplex in Warsaw. Currently, in addition to Radio Parada, the multiplex includes: Muzyczne Radio from Jelenia Góra, Radio 7 from Mława, Radio Konin FM, Radio Niepokalanów, Pop Radio from Pruszków, Radio Jasna Góra from Częstochowa, Radio Bezpieczna Podróż and Radio Maryja. The list of radiopolska.pl shows that the broadcast is carried on channel 11B. Residents of Warsaw can also receive stations from the DABCOM local multiplex and the Polish Radio multiplex. That's a total of 27 stations.

In the coming months, the local DAB+ network will be rolled out in frequency layers in phases. The Netherlands is divided into 57 broadcasting frameworks (allotments) in which public and commercial local broadcasters will broadcast. Some allotments where radio stations have been broadcasting via an experimental licence for some time have continued uninterrupted local DAB+ distribution from 1 September - the date of issue of the final broadcasting licence. In allotments where experimental transmissions had not yet taken place, distribution will be phased in the coming months. Local DAB+ broadcasts on channel 6D began today in the Rotterdam region. Network operator RNN today commissioned the DAB+ transmitter at the broadcast mast on the Waalhaven - where the necessary antennas are mounted at a height of 200 metres - in Rotterdam.

The Christian station Rádio Proglas plans to end analogue FM broadcasting and switch to digital technology DAB+ within two to three years. According to director Martin Holík, the management is considering how to make the transition smoothly and without major disruptions. Proglas wants to distribute the signal from the new transmitters of the Teleko operator, which are planned - Králíky or Třebíč, and it is also considering covering Znojmo. According to Martin Holík, the head of the digitalization project at Radio Proglas, who is also its director, it would be ideal for the station to reduce the power of FM transmitters during this period and at the same time encourage listeners to buy receivers that, in addition to the existing analogue broadcasts, allow them to tune in to radio programmes digitally.

Broadcasts of a local DAB+ network in the Rotterdam region started today around 11.30 am. The broadcasts can be heard on channel 6D. Radio stations Radio 972, Hofstad Radio, Girlpower, Sunrise FM and Arrow Bluesbox will broadcast via the DAB+ network from Rotterdam. Broadcasting is done from the tower at the Waalhaven in Rotterdam. ‘By placing the transmitter at the highest point of the Waalhaven tower in Rotterdam, a large part of the region is now provided with strong and reliable DAB+ coverage', said transmitter operator Radio Netwerk Nederland (RNN) in a press release. This operator previously facilitated local DAB+ networks in Twente, Leeuwarden, Tilburg and Den Bosch, among others.

Augusto Molina (SER): ‘We are in favour of DAB, if it goes ahead’. This statement by SER's technical director, made during the round table discussion ‘What will happen to broadcasting, does DAB have a future in Spain?’, suggests a change of position by the sector's leading company, the private Prisa Media, on the digital transformation of broadcasting in Spain, which is more than two decades behind schedule, although it is conditional on a series of needs, mainly economic, which should be included in the future National Digital Broadcasting Plan, which the government must work on in order to bring order to this new reality.