Bierhorst at Radiodays Europe 2025: "Broadcast is for broadcasters"

11.03.2025 by Jacqueline Bierhorst, President, WorldDAB

I am as passionate about great radio and audio as everyone else gathered here today. In the past 35 years I worked for broadcasters – both public and private, and helped the change in distribution in both TV and radio from analogue to digital, with a focus on the Netherlands, but also in other countries.

I am just back from speaking at the Saudi Media Forum – it is great to see how DAB+ is growing around the world. We have a strong presence not just across Europe but now in Africa, Asia Pacific and the Arab States. Saudi Arabia started DAB+ broadcasts in 2023 with coverage from city centres to the Riyadh-Abha highway – which I am pointing out in this picture!

I want to talk to you not only about the global growth of DAB+, and how it can re-energise radio; but also why I believe BROADCAST is crucial for BROADCASTERS.

That may seem a strange thing to say, or that it’s obvious. But as we near the end of this event, let me explain why I think it’s important that you keep this with you - and that you think about it hard when you’re back in your studios or offices.

In my role as President of WorldDAB, I love to evangelise how DAB+ rejuvenates and re-energises radio as a medium, creating new momentum, more opportunities to grow your businesses and gain more income at lower costs.

Some might believe that IP is the only distribution method that matters for the future.

For what I have seen throughout the world, I can only say, NEVER let your own broadcast distribution eco-system fade out and solely become dependent on third party aggregators on IP.

For one, in times of emergency, IP can fail completely, and a broadcast network is indispensable for communication and or safety. I’ll talk more about this shortly.

The unregulated tech giants do not have your interests at heart. They can switch you off their platforms on a whim. You have given away your control of how, and even IF your listeners can hear you.

All the beautiful content that the people in this room create should be accessible for free, everywhere over the airwaves. Not something that third party platforms can put behind a paywall, or re-sell or even censor. This is why BROADCAST is critical for BROADCASTERS.

With broadcast, you have the options of analogue FM or digital DAB+.

We have heard so much about AI and the digital future in the past few days. DAB+ offers all the benefits of a fully digital experience. It levels the playing field in the dashboard and keeps us independent from tech giants and gives leverage in our conversations with them.

It allows high quality text and graphics and station logos that means your station looks its best in the car – and every bit as good as the big apps that you’re now competing with for “share of ear”.

Across Europe, DAB+ has been available in almost all cars as standard since the end of 2020. That’s almost five years of cars – at least - now able to access DAB+. Our latest figures show almost 150 million receivers in the market in total.

DAB+ a proven success

DAB is a proven success, right now, around the world. Think of it as a question of “how you do it”, not “if…”. And at around one-tenth of the cost of analogue transmission, it really is a no brainer.

As we’ll hear from Nicola [Bomio, Head of Radio at CH Media and President of the Association of Swiss Commercial Radio Stations], switchover is underway in Switzerland. The public service broadcaster SRG SSR switched off its FM transmitters at the end of the year.

All of us here today know that listeners don’t like change, and with any move such as this, there will be some churn. BUT - we know from the experience in Norway, that this will be short-lived. And the long-term benefits more than make up for it.

Alongside Switzerland, in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, private and public radio stations have reached an agreement to switch gradually to DAB+ digital radio broadcasting by 2031. This includes Deutschlandradio, which in June will switch to purely digital coverage with DAB+ for 16 FM stations.

And we continue to grow. In just the last week or two:

• Turkey has officially launched DAB+, with twelve stations from the iconic Çamlıca tower in Istanbul.
• In Ireland, a high-power DAB+ trial will launch in a couple of weeks. Big groups including Bauer and Wireless will bring new and existing stations to the market.
• In Luxembourg – a key part of our radio heritage - there’s a call out for stations to join their new national DAB+ multiplex.
• Now the government in Portugal is exploring a two-year DAB+ trial in Lisbon and Porto

Just yesterday we heard:

• Greece’s public service broadcaster ERT announced it will roll out DAB+ nationwide by the end of the year – 19 new sites. Eleven stations are already on air in Athens, Thessaloniki and  Patras. 
• Bauer Media in the UK will launch four new DAB+ national brand extension stations by the end of the month: Greatest Hits Radio 70s and Greatest Hits Radio 80s; Hits Radio 90s and Hits Radio 00s.

We know that people think DAB+ might be expensive. But innovative new approaches to DAB – what’s known in some countries as “small-scale” –bring the cost of entry right down and allow new stations to flourish, as we’ve seen for example in the United Kingdom.

We know DAB+ brings benefits for broadcasters, listeners and society. In many cities around the world FM is full, which stifles innovation and creativity in the launching of new services.

Broadcasters are frustrated. Existing companies can’t innovate or expand coverage. New services can’t get on air. It’s about growing the cake, rather than just thinner slices.

This is really where DAB can re-energise radio with new stations and innovations such as this – in the UK, last year Capital launched a pop-up station dedicated to Taylor Swift, called Capital (Taylor’s Version), to celebrate The Eras Tour coming to the UK. It’s the first time in the UK that a national DAB+ radio station has been dedicated to a single artist. This just isn’t something you can do on a crowded FM band.

So listeners get that extra choice. And we are seeing on average up to five times as many services on DAB as on analogue. DAB+ offers clearer sound for listeners – particularly where FM is overcrowded.

DAB+ protecting the public with Automatic Safety Alerts (ASA)

Plus it is reliable and robust in emergencies. We’ve launched the "Automatic Safety Alert (ASA)" system.

It aims to protect the public during emergencies by delivering reliable safety alerts without requiring an internet connection. Listeners will benefit from a system that alerts them even if mobile or internet connections are disrupted.

ASA operates automatically in the background, can be regionally adjusted for the location, and boasts high resilience thanks to the robust DAB+ radio transmission network.

All these are again why I believe we need to keep BROADCAST as the backbone for BROADCASTERS.

WorldDAB is the global industry forum for DAB+ digital radio, with over 1,500 experts from 119 member organisations in 39 countries across the globe.

A core part of our work is that we bring everybody together. We stand UNITED around the world, working with our friends at the EBU and the Association of European Radios.

If you want to know more, join us. We are passionate about energising radio and its digital future. We offer knowledge, expertise and advice - we’d love you to be part of it!

So, an invite. Our WorldDAB Automotive event takes place on 19 June in the beautiful city of Madrid. and we’d love you to join us.

If you have listeners in the car – and I’m sure you do – then you need to be there. It’s a unique event bringing together broadcasters and the automotive sector, and an opportunity to shape radio’s future at the heart of the dashboard.

You can register on the WorldDAB website.

I want to leave you with one final way that DAB+ can energise radio - through the industry coming together to promote the medium. If you market radio as a whole, once again it will generate new interest and grow the sector as a whole… you will grow the cake!