News

France's Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel (CSA) will focus on the region between Bordeaux and Toulouse as part of its DAB+ roadmap. Bordeaux will have 26 radio stations broadcast digitally thanks to a local allotment. Toulouse will broadcast 39 digital stations, 26 spread over two local multiplexes, and 13 on the extended multiplex.

The Danish government recently announced new media policies, and among them is a proposal that the FM band be shut down by 2021, reports radionytt.se. In Switzerland, nearly 600,000 DAB-capable radios were sold in 2017. The country plans to start phasing out FM broadcasts from 2020 onwards.

German broadcaster WELT has advised listeners to pursue DAB+ radio stations should numerous FM stations be switched off in Germany following a dispute over the cost of FM transmission in the country. "Up to ten million listeners could already be affected from Wednesday by a shutdown of their FM radio stations," said Media Broadcast boss Wolfgang Breuer.

The local Foreign Ministry prepared a new plan to end FM no later than 2021, or sooner if listening figures for digital radio reach 50%.

Despite the absence of electronically-adjusted heated leather seats, it still has 17in alloys, LED headlights, a 10in touchscreen infotainment system with DAB radio, cruise control, a reversing camera and a reasonable array of active safety systems.

All the functions are included, starting from classic radio via FM, digital radio via DAB+, internet radio stations, Bluetooth, Spotify Connect and an alarm function.

With an amendment to article 89 of the stability law 2018, the Government established that from 1 June 2019 it will no longer be possible to import receivers that do not have a DAB radio signal decoder chip, while starting from 1 January 2020 all radios that will be deprived will no longer be marketed. There will then be a period of coexistence and sellers will have 6 months available to dispose of old products.

Spokesperson for Spain's Compromis Party Carles Mulet has called for the country's government to pursue a digital agenda, aimed at the digitisation of radio in Spain. He cited the examples of Norway, Switzerland, France and the UK and their governments pursuing a process to increase DAB services as what Spain should follow.

The government of Denmark wants to disable analogue broadcasting via the FM system by 2021 at the latest, announced this week as part of a process to accelerate the digitisation of radio.

For some time the rule was that FM in Denmark takes place no later than two years after the share of digital radio listening has reached 50%. Now the Danish government has decided to set a hard closing date at 2021. Currently, the share of digital listening is 38%.