News

The U.K's national, commercial DAB network, known as Digital One, plans to commission four new transmitter sites before the end of this year, and an additional five next year.

The latest Q3 Digital Radio survey carried out by TNS Gallup and commissioned by Digital Radio Norway show positive gains, as research has found the number of DAB receivers in households has increased by nearly 250,000. There are now more than 1.9 million DAB receivers in Norway and the number of DAB receivers in car is now up 14% from 8% prior year putting the total number at 390,000. The total proportion of Norwegian households with at least one DAB receiver has increased from 36% to 50%. “We have reached a major milestone when 50% of the country’s households report having one or more DAB radios.” says Ole Jørgen Torvmark, General Manager, Digital Radio Norway.

The Media Council of the Bavarian Regulatory Authority for Commercial Broadcasting (BLM) has approved the broadcasting of PN Radio One on DAB in Augsburg. The PN Medien GmbH expires on 30/04/2015. The distribution of radio Ilmwelle via DAB in areas Augsburg and Ingolstadt until 30/04/2015 was also confirmed.

A South-London based group called Trash Can Radio is expected to launch on DAB in the London area soon. The station has a launch countdown on its website saying it is launching on Sunday 12th October. Ofcom has just awarded the station a Digital Sound Programme Service licence to feature programmes consisting of a broad range of music from the past 60 years with varied speech content. Programmes will typically carry 90% music and 10% speech.

Sky Radio Christmas, playing non stop Christmas themed music went live on DAB+ today to help get listeners in the mood for the happiest season of the year.

Polish Radio is increasing its digital radio coverage, adding Lodz and Opole, reports Rpkom.pl. Digital radio coverage has thus reached 9.7 million inhabitants (25.4%).

Italian network operator Club DAB Italia has rolled out the countrys nationwide DAB service with help from 2wcoms FlexNsert and FlexXtract . In a technical first for Italy, the 2wcom technology was deployed to allow the DAB network to be fed with an ETI stream and distributed over a large geographical area.

Digital One, the national commercial DAB digital radio network, is commissioning a number of new transmitters to strengthen and extend its coverage. Four new sites will be added to the network between now and the end of this year, with a further five sites being planned for 2015. This new phase of expansion will up the number of operational transmitters to beyond 150, making it one of the largest digital radio networks in the world.

There have been 80 successful applications for the Digital Radio Certification Mark, known as the 'tick mark', since the launch of the programme in June, it has been revealed. The tick mark aims to give consumers assurance that the DAB digital radio products and services with the mark are future-ready and comply with the minimum specification. This includes compatibility with FM, DAB and the newer DAB+ technology, which is in a trial period.

Philippe Gault, President of SIRTI, specified that "this law was passed, the CSA organized a call for nominations, licenses have been issued, we took our responsibilities and publisher’s risks, and we expect a very simple thing, which is that the law that was passed be applied without waiting for further changes."