News

The pop-up digital station run by Jazz FM and the BBC is returning for 2016, for five days from November 10th. Live concerts will air from EFG London Jazz Festival in partnership with BBC Radio 3 along with Jazz FM’s archive recordings, and specially commissioned new content for the first time this year.

Speaking at WorldDAB’s Industry Insight Session at the IBC in Amsterdam, the EBU’s Head of Radio Graham Dixon said: “The continuing importance of live radio, combined with the increasing popularity of radio on the move, with young people in particular consuming radio on their phones, means we need to establish reliable delivery platforms to take radio into the future.”

Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) continues to attract a larger digital radio audience than any other radio group, with four of its stations in the top 10 of GfK’s DAB+ Digital Radio Report 3 for 2016.

The Digital Radio report by GfK, released by Commercial Radio Australia, has the total DAB+ cumulative audience at 3,603000.

WorldDAB has released its latest collection of sales and coverage figures for key markets in Europe and Asia Pacific to the end of Q2 2016. So how does Australia stack up? Stats include road and overall population coverage, receiver sales, household penetration and, for the first time, the number of national stations on DAB/DAB+ compared to FM.

In ten points, ARD draws a very tight common framework to ensure the progress of DAB+. Digital radio has always been universal and free and 50 million DAB/DAB+ receivers have already been sold worldwide.

"The development of the Open Mobile Radio Interface is a real step forward and allows broadcasters to adapt their apps and to facilitate the use of the DAB + tuner in the smartphone. This will allow some real innovation in the use of digital radio services that provide real benefits to consumers due to their free availability. " Simon Fell, Technology Director at the EBU.

A group of broadcasting operators and technology companies have developed an open and universal interface that will make it easier for app developers to create radio app that supports DAB +. The new interface has been named Open Mobile Radio Interface (OMRI).

If small and portable top your radio wishlist, the Sony V1BTD ticks both boxes. Standing just 17cm tall, there aren’t many places this radio won’t squeeze into, especially when its rechargeable battery lets it go wire free for up to 25 hours. As well as DAB, the V1BTD packs Bluetooth and NFC, with an aux in for connecting laptops, smartphones or tablets, and a headphone out for private listening.

The GfK radio ratings surveys are released eight times per year for the metropolitan markets of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.The total DAB+ cumulative audience is 3, 603 000.