News

A local media company has been awarded a licence to establish a new DAB digital radio transmitter network for Exeter. ExeDab will now begin discussions to finalise its transmission plans to broadcast up to 25 digital radio stations.

Since February, Ofcom has planned the airwaves and awarded small-scale DAB licences in 25 areas across the UK. With the first round of awards now complete, these licences have the potential to allow the launch of over 500 new local radio stations. Some of the hundreds of new stations set to launch on small-scale DAB are existing analogue community and small commercial radio services. Many others will be completely new – ranging from grass-roots community services to boutique specialist music stations, and services aimed at minority groups and other under-served audiences.

Ofcom has awarded the final batch of licences in round one of the small-scale DAB licensing process completing an almost five-month process to announce the winners. Kevin Bakhurst, Ofcom’s Group Director, Broadcasting and Online Content said: “The rollout of this innovative technology will give listeners across the UK an unprecedented choice of locally produced content – serving communities and audiences across the country in a way never seen before. The UK’s commercial and community radio industry continues to go from strength.”

A survey by the public company Transmitters and Communications (OiV) and the Croatian Vehicle Center (CVH) showed that there is already a large share of vehicles with a digital DAB + receiver among newer generation vehicles, as much as 30.4%.

The Tilburg Kermis started on Friday and therefore event channel Kermis FM is back on the air. In the coming days, several well-known names from the radio world will visit the studio for a guest programme. This year Kermis FM is available almost nationwide on DAB+ via the MTVNL network on channel 7D.

According to the Media Analysis 2021 report, Deutschlandradio's three national stations have reached record numbers of listeners, with Deutschlandfunk continuing to be the only information programme in the top 10 most popular programmes. Listening via DAB+ continues to increase, especially among younger target groups. DAB+ now has a share of 20.4 percent among listeners aged 14 and over compared to 17.4 percent in 2020.

With the Federal Network Agency's frequency allocation for channel 12B at the Erfurt and Weimar locations vis-à-vis DIVICON MEDIA HOLDING GmbH, the concrete implementation for the start of DAB+ for private radio stations can now take place. This was announced by the Thuringian State Media Authority (TLM) on July 14th.

NDR, the public broadcaster for the German states of Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Niedersachsen and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, has published expansion plans for its DAB+ transmitter network, detailing the deployments taking place from January to December 2021.

An EBU report finds that DAB+ digital radio broadcast networks are the fastest-growing. In 2021 nearly 2,000 different services were identified, a 23% increase in only two years, with no sign of slowing down.

DAB+ digital radio has reached 18 percent of households in Netherlands, according to an annual report from the Ministry of Economic Affairs. 2.5 million receivers have been sold and the recent auction of new licences is expected to increase the DAB+ content offer. A national survey found that almost 20% of radio in the car is consumed via DAB+. This is expected to increase sharply in the coming years following an EU requirement to fit all new cars with digital radio.