News

The CSA has published the report of the public consultation launched last July. There were a large number of responses and a willingness to start the rollout of further DAB+ services without delay. This would mean coverage of more than 20% of the French population.

This year’s WorldDAB Award for Outstanding Service was awarded to Anthony Sethill, CEO of Frontier Silicon and past Vice-President of WorldDAB in recognition of Anthony’s contribution to the growth and development of the DAB standards across global markets over the last 15 years.

UK Minister of State for Culture and the Digital Economy, Ed Vaizey, and Dorothee Bär, German Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI), set out their shared vision for radio’s digital future at the WorldDAB General Assembly. Ed Vaizey said the European Commission can and should play a greater role in supporting the transition to digital radio across Europe.

Panjab Radio is expanding into Europe with the launch of a DAB service in Berlin. The slot on the Berlin/Brandenburg DAB 7B network makes Panjab the first Asian radio station to broadcast in Germany.

DAB radio channel Radio Skjeberg had its first broadcast on Wednesday morning. The station will broadcast every Wednesday and Thursday morning and evening.

A total of five applications for DAB+ were submitted to BLM for the regions of Ingolstadt, Munich and Nuremberg. The Media council will decide on the selection of applicants before mid-February next year.

Smooth Christmas will be the only all Christmas station broadcasting nationally on DAB, expected to cease on Boxing Day and return to Smooth Extra.

Previous pop-ups, which live on a temporary DAB channel as well as online, have focused on the Eurovision or a country music theme, as well as an additional channel for the Olympics. Pop-up radio stations in the past have had good effect on sales of DAB Digital Radio receivers and are incorporated into RAJAR, though the listening figures are not released by the BBC.

DAB radio is now standard equipment on Clio and Captur models fitted with either the MediaNav or R-Link infotainment systems meaning that all, apart from entry level versions, now come with DAB as standard.

In her speech at the WorldDAB General Assembly, Dorothee Bär outlined how she has asked radio market actors to join a “digital radio board" in April 2015, the goal of which is to shape the future of broadcasting. Having met already twice this year,the participants have agreed on three points: the creation of a digital radio project office; the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure will promote a “smart radio” rule at EU level, and different scenarios will be investigated in order to assess financial impact and possible gaps in funding.