News

Just like they used to do with milk cartons, but in a digital version: the photo of Kata, the little girl who disappeared yesterday in Florence, now appears on many car radios thanks to the initiative of 24 local Tuscan radio stations in the Media DAB consortium. The initiative is intended to support the search for little Kataleya Alvarez; the radio stations have replaced the slides of the song covers on air with photos of the missing little girl, and the taxis of the Società Coop Tassisti Firenze (TAXI 4242), are tuned in to DAB+ on one of the radios, so that they can make their customers aware of the search still underway.

The Corporation's Director of Audiovisual Policies, Public Service and International expresses his determination to face the challenge of digital radio migration in Spain. Today, 4 million DAB+ receivers "on wheels" can only tune to pirate stations. The 'R' of the RTVE Corporation was present, with outstanding advances on its future, at the conference "Trends in European public audiovisual services", which was held last Thursday at the Prado del Rey Auditorium. The conference was an opportunity for the public corporation to state its position in the debate, which has been frozen for two decades, on the adoption of DAB+ as the broadcast standard that will replace the majority FM.

On 9 June at noon, the application period for a licence to broadcast digital commercial radio ended. A total of 12 applications for programme services have been received from five different applicants: Mad Men Media AB (7), Skärgårdsradion AB (1), DB Media AB (2), Prodraft AB (1) and a private individual (1). A review of the applications will now be initiated to see which ones have been received in time and whether any supplements need to be requested. The applicants will also be assessed on the basis of formal requirements to ensure that they have both the financial and technical conditions to broadcast during the entire licence period. It is also important that they are prepared to cooperate with other licence holders on technical issues.

On 9 June at 12:00, the application period for a licence to broadcast digital commercial radio ended. The Swedish Press, Radio and TV Authority has received a total of twelve applications from five different applicants. Mad Men Media has applied for seven licences, Skärgårdsradion one, DB Media two, Prodraft one and a private individual one. The major players in the commercial radio market - Bauer Media, NRJ and Viaplay - have not applied for additional licences. The MPRT has published the company names and the number of applications per company. However, it will not publish the broadcasting areas to which the applications relate. A decision is expected "between June and mid-August".

Private radio stations associated with the Association of Private Broadcasters (APSV) want to acquire their own nationwide network for terrestrial digital radio broadcasting DAB+ and operate it under their own direction. The request was made during the comment procedure on the draft conditions for the auction of frequencies for digital radio networks published by the Czech Telecommunications Office (CTU). The auction is due to take place later this year and is intended to distribute among operators networks intended for the distribution of digital signals of commercial radios. Jiří Hrabák, president of APSV, and Jiří Duhač, head of the frequency spectrum management department of the CTU, will comment on the issue at the DIGIMEDIA 2023 conference, which will take place on Wednesday 14 June 2023 in Prague.

"Arcom is gradually extending DAB+ coverage. It plans to launch a call for DAB+ applications for Corsica in 2024," said Chair of Arcom, Roch-Olivier Maistre. Are any stations in Corsica going to switch to DAB, such as RCFM, Radio France's local station? "Radio France is very committed to DAB+ and the government has already made known its request for "pre-emption" in favour of RCFM. Generally speaking, the plan for the transition to DAB+ provides for public and private FM broadcasters who so request to benefit from the advantages of this new technology."

RTVS technical director Roman Skřívánek spoke on Wednesday's edition of the programme "Contacts" on Radio Slovakia about the public broadcaster's plans for DAB+ technology. "We are in intensive negotiations to increase the power of the Žilina and Krížava transmitters and to launch two more transmitters, Ružomberok - Úložisko and Poprad - Hranovnica," said Skřivánek. As the public broadcaster is not able to measure the popularity of digital radio listening at the moment, it plans to focus on the motorway section between Bratislava and Košice for further coverage. "With this we would like to get slightly over 65% of the population coverage," he added.

Arcom has published the "Public consultation and impact study prior to call for local DAB+ applications No. 10". The French regulator said: "In accordance with its roadmap, with a view to the launch of a call for DAB+ applications in nineteen areas, Arcom is launching a public consultation and impact study on the DAB+ areas of Agen, Angoulême, Blois, Bourges, Châteauroux, Chaumont, Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, Épinal, Forbach, Mont-de-Marsan, Nevers, Niort, Saintes, Vesoul and Vichy."

Deutschlandradio, Germany’s national public radio broadcaster, is forging ahead in its DAB+ rollout. It has commissioned five new transmitters from network operator Media Broadcast. Next week, it will switch on the Zwickau transmitter in Saxony. The broadcaster says later this year, it will switch on transmitters in Bad Kreuznach (Rhineland-Palatinate), Hornisgrinde and Mainhardt (Baden-Württemberg) and Merchingen (Saarland).

Aiir PlayoutOne Local community radio broadcasters have joined together to apply for the small-scale DAB licence for South Hertfordshire. Hertfordshire Digital Broadcasting brings together several local online Community Radio stations such as Radio Dacorum from Hemel Hempstead and new stations including Borehamwood and Elstree Community Radio, plus Clive Glover, the founder of St Albans Community station Radio Verulam. Clive told RadioToday: “Community radio in Hertfordshire has been restricted by the lack of FM frequencies so small-scale DAB brings the opportunity for other radio groups currently online only to get onto the airwaves locally in future. “We are talking to a number of other local organisations interested in starting new radio services so we hope that there could be as many as 8 local services on air by the time we go live in 2025.