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The Sound Digital multiplex in the UK has completed its coverage expansion, adding another four million potential listeners. As a result, more listeners than ever have access to the 19 digital radio stations offered by the multiplex, covering parts of East Anglia, the South West, Kent, South Wales and North East Scotland, boosting coverage from 77 to 83% of the UK.

Four million more listeners across the UK can now receive 19 further radio stations on DAB digital radio for the first time following the launch of new transmitters covering parts of East Anglia, the South West, Kent, South Wales and North East Scotland. In total 19 new transmitters have been added to the network, meaning that four million more listeners now have access to the Sound Digital stations, increasing coverage to 83% of the UK from 77%.

South Africa Deputy Minister for Communications Pinky Kekana has encouraged small radio stations, including campus radio stations, to expand into the digital platform and continue to churn out dynamic and informative content. The Deputy Minister also urged community radio stations to ensure they are ready for digital migration once the government was able to work with them.

Digital radio listening has grown considerably in the past quarter. This is evident from the listening figures for the third quarter of 2018 of RAJAR. The digital listening share increased by 2.2 percentage points to 52.4% in the past quarter. Three-quarters of digital listening still takes place via DAB. Partly because more and more new cars have standard DAB on board, already more than 92% , the share of DAB rose by more than 2 percentage points. But at home, the growth is still there, because 64.1% of adults claim to have a DAB radio at home.

Sessions slated for the two-day event comprise “Why Radio Is Robust in a Competitive Audio Environment;” “Voice Control, Devices and How Listeners are Consuming Radio at Home and in the Car;” “Digital radio in the Car - Getting it Right;” “Country Marketing Updates - Quick Fire Forum;” and "DAB for Success - New Content, New Brands, New markets.”

"Digital is better," was the conclusion of the discussion forum on digital radio at this year's Medientage München. More and more radio stations in Germany are choosing digital distribution channels.

Everyone agrees with the panel discussion on digital hearing at the Media Days Munich: DAB Plus is the future. Deutschlandradio director Stefan Raue explains himself at the event: "DAB Plus offers us three advantages: firstly, it is more economical compared to FM, secondly our high-quality programs sound much better, and thirdly, it can be received anywhere without an internet connection and we are gradually setting our digitization strategy and rely on DAB +, Webstream and Podcast.

Digital listening was boosted further by increases in online listening and in-car DAB. 52.4% of UK radio listening is now done via a digital platform. According to the latest set of radio audience figures for the third quarter of 2018, total digital listening hours grew by 5.4% year on year, or 27.5 million hours. DAB listening in cars accounted for 11 million hours (or 40%) of all digital listening growth, while listening in home via online/Apps accounted for 13.5 million hours (or 49%) of all digital listening growth.

From 12 to 16 November, all Flemish national radio stations organize an action week, which must convince listeners to finally switch to a digital device. The FM broadcasts will eventually be stopped anyway. At the announcement of the switch-off, the target was 2022-2023.

Digital audio broadcasting (DAB) is growing across Europe and is pivotal to a functioning democratic society, said European Broadcasting Union Head of Radio Graham Dixon at the WorldDAB session at IBC last month. Dixon said: “What we want is a future world in which radio is available, robust and free to air for listeners as Europe’s most trusted source of media.”