News

It’s beginning to sound a lot like Christmas, as Heart Xmas – a radio station dedicated to non-stop Christmas music, 24/7 – launches across the UK on Friday 23rd September. Heart Xmas is the Christmas-themed sister station of Heart, the UK’s biggest commercial radio brand, and is home to the nation’s favourite festive feel good tunes. Due to the growing popularity of Heart Xmas every year, this year the seasonal spin off station will be available on digital radio across the UK meaning Christmas fans can tune in from wherever they are in the UK on DAB as well as Global Player, bringing even wider coverage!

WorldDAB produced a Sunday-morning conference session at this year’s IBC, exploring “new opportunities and new audiences with DAB+”. The packed event was hosted by WorldDAB’s Vice-President and Project Director of Digital Radio Netherlands, Jacqueline Bierhorst who detailed how DAB+ is driving the uptake of digital radio, with it now being standard in over 90% of new cars sold in Europe.

Following consultations, the KRRiT has adopted a position on the end of analogue radio broadcasting. The regulator has also adopted a draft regulation on DAB+ licence fees. On Thursday afternoon, the KRRiT announced in a communiqué the adoption of a draft regulation amending the regulation on the amount of fees for granting licences for broadcasting in the DAB+ standard. For two years - an additional fourfold discount in the fee for granting the concession (for concessions expiring by the end of 2034). For a further two years - double discount for broadcasting.

In the next year, the Czech Republic can expect a massive development of DAB+ digital broadcasting. At the Innovation Day conference on Thursday 22 September, representatives of Czech Radiocommunications and Czech Radio agreed on this. It is in this period that the Czech Telecommunications Authority is to give operators the opportunity to build networks for private radio stations. Miloš Mastník, CEO of Czech Radio, personally and as a member of the management of the key telecommunications operator supports the development of DAB+. "We expect a boom in digital radio next year. There will be more multiplexes available to offer to other interested parties."

R&B Group AG will receive approval and allocation of DAB+ transmission capacity for its 24-hour radio full service Radio Vidovdan for five years, the assembly of the Media Authority Hesse decided at its meeting yesterday. The new station plays mainly Slavic folk music, traditional hits and Balkan pop from the former Yugoslav member states and Romania. In addition to the music programming, Radio Vidovdan offers regional, national and international news from the perspective of these states every hour on the hour.

24 per cent of Dutch households now own a radio equipped with DAB+. This is according to figures from CBS, Central Bureau of Statistics. Last year, 22 per cent of Dutch households still owned a radio equipped with digital broadcast reception, by 2022 this percentage will have grown to 24 per cent. This involves a radio equipped with DAB+ in the home and/or car. All new cars, by the way, have been delivered with digital radio reception as standard since last year.

On 7 September 2022 the Federal Council decided to provide financial support for all radio programme services broadcast via DAB+ until the FM switch-off at the end of 2024. Thus in 2023 and 2024, in addition to the licensed broadcasteOrs with a levy share, the licensed broadcasters without a levy share as well as the notified broadcasters will again receive subsidies for the broadcasting of their programme services via DAB+.

After Paris and the Ile-de-France, RADIO-J is now also broadcasting its programmes in DAB+ throughout the French Riviera: Nice, Cannes, Antibes, Juan-les-Pins, Grasse, Fréjus, Saint-Tropez, Menton and Monaco. According to Médiamétrie, 380,000 listeners tune in to Radio-J (+21% in one year, overall audience), including 138,000 every week (+6% in one year).

While regional deployments are continuing in France and Switzerland is preparing to definitively abandon FM in favour of digital radio, even though digital radio now accounts for more than half of all car radio listening there, several countries in Europe are taking multiple initiatives... In Germany, a study shows that the DAB+ audience is younger on average than the radio audience. This is good news for the rejuvenation of the radio audience. In Sweden, the country has just transposed the European directive on DAB+ (obligation to integrate DAB+ into car receivers).

The decision on the establishment of a state-wide, regionalised broadcasting of radio and telemedia via DAB+ in Lower Saxony has been made. The assembly of the Lower Saxony State Media Authority (NLM) decided in its meeting yesterday to allocate the DAB+ transmission capacities put out to tender to Media Broadcast GmbH as platform operator. As in North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein, the allocation was preceded by a constructive agreement procedure moderated by the NLM between the three applicants. As a result, the almost eight million inhabitants of the second largest federal state can look forward to up to 16 new and well-known programmes of different formats per region from around summer 2023.