News

UK's largest commercial radio group Global is transforming its Heart 90s playlist *service* into a full national radio station on DAB+. It is the first of five new services all going national on DAB - all brand extensions to Global's current services.

CEO Grant Blackley advised that the SCA strategy of keeping advertisers locked in by offering access to the SCA "digital stack" combining FM and DAB+ audiences. He also announced SCA will shortly launch two new DAB+ radio brands.

Slovenian telecoms and media regulator AKOS has launched a public consultation on a second national DAB+ network, and will hold a public meeting at AKOS offices on 12 September. Licences for the remaining spaces on the R1 national multiplex were greatly oversubscribed.

Coles Radio retains the top spot on the DAB+ survey with 270,000 listeners Australia wide.

In the keynote opening, said Joan Warner of CRA: “In one day, a listener can wake up to breakfast radio, listen in the car using DAB+, follow a radio show page on Facebook, listen on-demand to a radio podcast, use a mobile app or listen on a smart speaker such as an Amazon Echo using voice technology. To make all this happen, radio has forged new partnerships with global giants and utilised our deep content expertise to create new customer experiences."

When it came to metro performance, SCA chief executive Grant Blackley told Radio Today there are three key factors underpinning this year’s performance - one of which is the continued maturity of SCA's DAB brands, which are now interwoven across SCA's entire radio platform.

Slovenia's R1 DAB+ multiplex is now full with the last remaining slots being awarded by the media regulator AKOS to Radio Aktual and Radio City. There were 11 applicants - four new stations and seven already broadcasting on FM. Once on air, and in case of any remaining space, a further licence could be awarded.

Media Broadcast has won a contract following a tender by the Media Authority for digital radio coverage in Kiel, Lubeck and Sylt. The contract is valid until 2022. Media Broadcast will cooperate with the Media Authority in a pilot project to test the broadcast of local and regional programmes via DAB+.

In this series of interviews on WorldDAB members exhibiting at IBC, Anne Borsum from the IZT explains how he sees the digital radio industry evolving in the coming years, and tells us about the DAB+ products the EBU will showcase at this year’s event.

In this series of interviews on WorldDAB members exhibiting at IBC, Ben Poor from the EBU explains how he sees the digital radio industry evolving in the coming years, and tells us about the DAB+ products the EBU will showcase at this year’s event.