News

Is digital radio in Australia dead? Not according to recent figures, in fact far from it. Digital radio is going strong and getting stronger. The recent news that Digital radio is now reaching 3.2 million listeners in Australia, according to GfK figures released by Commercial Radio Australia (CRA), shows growth of 24% in the past year. If that growth rate continues, digital radio listeners would exceed 10 million in Australia by 2020.

Pure confirmed their investment into the Norwegian receiver market at a press launch this week. "We see the transition to digital radio in Norway as a good opportunity to kick start in Norway. We are going to have more people in the various regions in the future. But cooperation on car radios is the biggest driver." says Jasper Wybrants, Country Manager for Pure in Norway.

Staffan Rosell, president of Discovery SBS Radio is the largest player in the commercial radio market, is very surprised at the Swedish National Audit conclusions. "The National Audit takes the side of digital opponents... One gets the feeling that they only received information from one side of the debate" he said to Dagens Media.

From 30 April, Radio Mauma.fm Germany will be broadcasted on DAB+.

The National Audit Office's report is partially deficient, and did not favour debate on Swedish radio's future, writes Per G. Porvoo, Teracom AB. The National Audit review has been carried out especially from an economic perspective. It is a distinction that raises more questions than it provides answers. It gives unfortunately only space to answer some of the erroneous descriptions in the report.

For many cottage areas, there is now good DAB coverage. There are many solutions for radio in the cabin, and they are often easier than you think.

On Tuesday, the Swedish Audit Office presented its report on digital switchover. The report reviewed the technical and economic profitability of the digitisation of radio in Sweden and concluded that radio should remain on FM. The report ignores the significance of broadcasting radio believes Ole Jørgen Torvmark, CEO of Digital Radio Norway.

The Organisation of Local Broadcasters in the Netherlands (OLON) is studying the possibility of its own pilot DAB+ test. OLON wants to use Band III, as do the national and regional DAB+ networks. However, before any pilot test programs start, local broadcasters must decide whether or not the addition of these new networks is financially feasible.

There were 450,000 new cars registered in Q1 2015 with digital radio as standard, an increase of 100,000 on Q1 2014, according to CAP/SMMT. In the past year, nearly 1.5 million new cars registered in the UK have had digital radio fitted as standard.

After a revision in March, Danish radio channels will now all be DAB+. Danish Radio has worked for several years for the digitisation of radio and called the transition to DAB+ an important step towards the digitisation of radio in Denmark.