News

Online station will be available via Ireland’s first small-scale DAB trial in Cork, operated by éirdab, serving a population of a quarter of a million people in and around the city.

Despite a highly competitive audio environment, radio remains robust, and delegates at this year’s WorldDAB General Assembly taking place in Berlin on 6-7 November 2018 will hear how DAB is at the heart of helping broadcasters build their brands, grow listeners and increase revenue.

In Q3 2018, 54.3% of commercial vehicles were line fitted with DAB as standard, up from 50.5% in Q2 2018, according to the latest data from CAP and The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders show. This means that 175,000 new commercial vehicles with DAB as standard have been sold in the last 12 months. The CAP/SMMT data on new cars showed that the percentage of new cars with DAB in Q3 2018 has increased to 91.4%, up from 87.5% compared to the same quarter last year. This means a total of 545,000 new cars with DAB as standard were sold in Q3 2018.

The French union of independent radio stations SIRTI has welcomed the appointment of Franck Riester as Minister of Culture, and calls on him to continue recent efforts to accelerate DAB+ in the country.

NENT Nordic Entertainment Group will start broadcasting via DAB+ digital radio in Sweden on January 1, 2019. In total, 15 digital stations will broadcast on DAB+ from January. According to Swedish Press, Radio and Television Authority’s license conditions, which run from 2014 to Sept. 20, 2022, the new digital network must reach 35 percent of the population by April 2019, 50 percent by 2020 and 70 percent the following year.

Factum Radioscape have signed a multi-year support agreement with Commercial Radio Australia to assist in the broadcasting of DAB+ services in Australia's major capital cities. Factum Radioscape managing director Thomas Durkin said: "DAB is an ever-evolving market and we are keen to stay at the forefront of this industry. Having partners like CRA is crucial to increasing awareness of our company, and how we can assist digital radio going forward."

The decision of the local media regulator, which granted the corresponding license to the Nordic Entertainment group (NENT), plans to launch a new 15-channel network in Sweden as early as January 1 2019, with a few other commercial players.

The latest listening figures from Norway’s Radio Listening Authority show that national radio listening is stable. Meanwhile listening figures from the third quarter of 2018 show that the niche channels have consolidated their position vis-a-vis the main channels.

In the new measures announced at the end of last week, the UK government wants to facilitate the broadcasting of community radio stations and smaller commercial radio stations on small-scale digital radio multiplexes which broadcast today only FM.

Ofcom will be creating a new category of licence for community radio stations – the C-DSP, (Community – Digital Sound Programme) which will help them go live on a SSDAB multiplex. Companies who win an SSDAB licence in the upcoming rounds will have to make a certain proportion of capacity available to C-DSP licence holders.