News

The winners of the auction of the national commercial radio frequencies can finally put their frequencies into use on 1 September. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate has now granted new licences for FM and DAB+, according to publication in the Government Gazette. This means that all winning parties have fulfilled their payment obligation and paid at least half of the winning bid within two weeks of the auction. In early July, the nine nationwide commercial FM lots with associated DAB+ capacity on channel 11C were auctioned. This netted the treasury almost €153 million.

The non-commercial local radio stations (NKLs) in Saxony have now all increased their range on digital radio DAB+. Radio Blau now broadcasts on the "Region Leipzig" multiplex on channel 10A, Radio T can be heard on the "Region Chemnitz" mux on channel 8A and coloRadio, Radio Zett and the now non-commercial Radio WSW broadcast on the "Region Dresden" bouquet on channel 7A. Radio Blau and Radio T have already ended their parallel broadcasting in the local muxes Chemnitz and Dresden.

The launch of Nordseewelle 2, which was actually planned for July, has now taken place. The station can be received exclusively via DAB+ in the north-west of Lower Saxony. It will be broadcast on the multiplexes Nordseeküste (Aurich) on channel 11A, Oldenburg (Steinkimmen) on channel 10B and Emsland (Cloppenburg/Molbergen) on channel 10C.

MIMIT will publish DAB calls for expressions of interest in obtaining available usage rights in several Italian areas during the last week of August. This decision suggests a wish to conclude the competitive tenders by the end of 2023. The areas are: Piedmont, Valle d'Aosta, Lombardy, Liguria, Tuscany, Umbria, Campania, and Sicily.

DAB continues to lead in-vehicle radio in the UK, growing to a 51.2% share of listening in cars, vans and lorries, up from 49.3% in the same quarter last year. UK audience data from RAJAR for the period ending 25 June 2023 also shows analogue platforms falling to their lowest share, with listening to AM/FM now at 31.4%. Meanwhile, News Broadcasting - home of digital stations Virgin Radio and Times Radio - describes itself as “the UK’s most digital broadcaster”, with 84% of hours now coming from digital, including DAB.

The latest round of RAJAR results - for the survey period ending 25 June 2023 - sees News Broadcasting’s portfolio of radio stations, including national brands talkSPORT, Virgin Radio UK, TalkRadio and Times Radio, as well as U105 in Northern Ireland, deliver highest-ever listening hours - up 16% year-on-year to 44.1m, while weekly reach was up 9.1% year-on-year at 6.4m listeners. News UK EVP, President of Broadcasting, Scott Taunton, said: “News Broadcasting remains the UK’s most digital broadcasting group, with 84% of listening hours from digital and 35% from streaming, positioning us brilliantly for continued digital audience and revenue growth.”

Boom Radio — the national DAB station targeted at baby boomers — has increased its audience again with 641,000 adults now listening each week, according to the latest official research. The music radio station for baby boomers launched during lockdown by presenters broadcasting from their bedrooms and garden sheds has seen spectacular growth in its audience in the last 12 months. Over the same period, the amount of hours spent by listeners with the station each week has more than doubled from 3.2m 12 months ago to 6.6m today*. Each listener is also now tuning in for over 10 hours per week, making Boom listeners the most loyal of all commercial radio listeners.

Some 16 FM stations in Accra and Kumasi, and Ghana’s leading broadcasting technology operator, K-NET are piloting the recently announced Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB) system under the auspices of the National Communications Authority (NCA). The NCA announced the commencement of trials for DAB in Accra and Kumasi, following which it held a stakeholder engagement with the selected parties involved. The stakeholders included the selected 16 FM stations as well as KNET, the technical partners for the project.

UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, the Rt Honourable Lucy Frazer MP has visited Cheshire’s MIX 56 ahead of its launch on DAB later this month. Lucy was joined by Warrington South MP Andy Carter. Cheshire’s MIX 56 is launching later this month on the new Warrington, Widnes and Runcorn small-scale digital multiplex and has also signed up for East Cheshire and Stockport. Andy Carter, Warrington South MP said: “The government have played a big part in extending DAB to small communities, it’s the future of radio so more listeners have access to digital radio services. We wish Cheshire’s MIX 56 the best of luck with the switch on later this month.”

The Czech Telecommunications Office has announced a tender for DAB+ networks. The document with the full title “Announcement of the tender procedure for the purpose of granting rights to use radio frequencies for the provision of electronic communications networks for the provision of terrestrial digital radio broadcasting and mobile multimedia applications in the frequency band 174-230 MHz” can be found here. Applicants may submit applications for the allocations until Aug. 31, 2023. The tender requires a cash guarantee by the same deadline. The auction itself is scheduled to take place in October.