News

In the fall of 2018, Deutschlandradio will be the first public service broadcaster in Germany to switch completely to a purely digital broadcasting technology with DAB+ in two existing FM broadcasting areas, with Helgoland and the region Mittenwald / Krün / Wallgau in the upper Isartal (from 4 October) to switch off FM one month after DAB+ services go to air.

Developed by the Fraunhofer Institute of Integrated Circuits, the software solution for DAB + opens the possibility for the manufacturers of radio receivers and microcircuits to include the DAB + options in the radio system. "Using a method developed specifically for this purpose, an improved version of our DAB+ software library automatically suppresses any sporadic narrowband interference. Harmful signals of this kind can create electronic components of cars," explains the infotainment manager Martin Spitel.

Sony has revealed a new car AV receiver, called the XAV-AX3005DB, with a gigantic touch screen. The display is indeed 6.95 inches , and supports Apple CarPlay and Android Auto to manage voice commands and display driving directions.

The host of Europe's most-listened breakfast show, Chris Evans, is leaving BBC Radio 2 in the UK having signed with the Virgin Radio brand - a DAB-only station with 400,000 listeners.

Czech Radio will gradually increase DAB + digital coverage by 40 to 80 percent by 2022. This follows from the Radio Broadcasting Plan for the period 2019 to 2022.

The two national public channels Deutschlandfunk and Deutschlandfunk Kultur will be recording their first FM frequencies in favor of DAB + in the coming autumn. On the island of Helgoland in the North Sea and in Mittenwald in Bavaria, the two radio stations are completely transferred to digital reception.

DAB+ has shown strong growth across key markets in Germany, according to a new report published today. The Digitisation Report 2018 shows the proportion of people in households owning at least one DAB+ device is almost seven million – an increase of almost one million from 2017. DAB+ was also shown to experience the strongest growth as the preferred reception route ahead of internet radio, increasing by 15.2%, and enabling 12.72 million Germans to have access to DAB+. Record growth was also reported for sales of DAB+ devices, with total sales close to 12 million (an increase of 19 per cent from last year), and almost every second new car has DAB+ line-fit, with total number of car radios with DAB+ growing from 3.7m last year to 4.41m in 2018. The Digitisation Report 2018 was conducted with participation of ARD, Deutschlandradio and Media Broadcast.

MDR director Karola Wille: "We urgently need an amendment to the Telecommunications Act, which requires digital reception facilities for radio sets of the future under the heading of interoperability, regardless of whether they are car radios or kitchen radios." According to the Radio Digitisation Report, 17 percent of households already own a DAB+ device, an increase of 1.9 percentage points year-on-year.

Digital radio DAB+ continues to grow in Germany. Around 12.7 million people in Germany have access to DAB +. This emerges from the current digitalisation report of the media authorities, which has now been published. That is 1.8 million more than in 2017. "The future of the radio is digital," said the director of the German radio station Stefan Raue.

The 595, the 595 Competizione and the 595 Turismo are equipped with Uconnect™ 5-inch DAB Radio with touchscreen and Uconnect Live services as standard equipment. Uconnect™ 7-inch HD, standard on the 595 Trofeo, is a fast platform complete with high-definition screen, navigation and DAB digital radio.