News

Latest Ofcom Communications Market Report show Wales has experienced the largest increase in DAB radio set ownership over the past year, with 42% of households now owning at least one set, a 15 percentage point increase. This brings Wales into line with the UK average. Read the report in full.

The last remaining MXR regional DAB multiplex is to close in ten months time, Ofcom has confirmed. Four other regional multiplexes operated by MXR have closed over the last couple of years, with no official confirmation on the future of the Yorkshire set-up. But the licence has not been renewed, meaning stations on the multiplex with either have to move to alternative local multiplexes, or fall silent before June 29th 2015.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) is to trial ‘visual radio’ at the Zurich 2014 European Athletics Championships. The slideshow can be delivered on platforms including DAB+ Slideshow, available on certain DAB car receivers, on hybrid radio (RadioVIS/RadioDNS) working with FM or digital radio, where receivers automatically download and display images as they are produced, and the web via a Javascript component.

It hasn't exactly been a Rachmaninov v rock'n'roll battle to the death, but last week digital BBC Radio 6 Music snuck past sister analogue station Radio 3 for the first time in the quarterly Rajar audience figures.

The Bayern Digital Radio GmbH has restructured the transmitter network in the channel 12D (Bavaria) and the local network in Ingolstadt. By reducing to 26 locations and simultaneously increasing the performance of 16 selected locations in the channel 12D penetration rate of digital radio in Bavaria has remained almost constant (88% road / 54% home / Source: BLM).

Rohde & Schwarz will give a live demonstration of the R&S Tx9 transmitter generation at IBC 2014. The company says it will show how the Tx9 helps reduce the operating costs of transmitter networks, for FM, DAB and TV. This transmitter generation features energy efficiency, a compact design and redundancy concepts that can reduce costs by more than 70%

Latest Q2 2014 report from RAJAR show that the digital listening is going from strength to strength. DAB remains the most popular platform for digital listening, with 237 million hours, up 1% year on year. DAB listening growth has been driven by the increase of DAB listening in-car.

Italian regulator AGCOM agree to proceed with the planning of new regional areas for T DAB +.

The latest figures from Rajar for Q2 2014 show that DAB radio is still the most popular device when it comes to listening digitally, accounting for 65% of all digital hours (24% of Total Hours).

6 Music has attracted 1.89m people listening on digital radio only, whilst BBC Radio 3, which has a full network of FM transmitters across the country pulls in 1.8m. Ford Ennals, CEO of Digital Radio UK, says: “Digital listening held steady in Q2 2104 but there has been a huge shift in radio listening over the last few years. This is highlighted by the decline in analogue listening to 56.6% which is even more extreme in home, where analogue and digital listening share are now nearly equal. For digital listening to increase to the next level will require significantly more growth in digital listening in car, as well as for local DAB coverage to be expanded towards FM equivalence and for more national digital-only stations to be launched.”