News

Launched at the end of 2020, the WorldDAB Asia-Pacific Technical Group concluded the year by holding its 4th meeting on 9th December. Throughout 2021 the WorldDAB APAC Technical Group grew from strength to strength, with membership of the group growing to over 60 radio industry representatives from over 20 countries from across the region, and with virtually all Southeast Asian countries being represented. The meetings focused a range of topics around the “DAB adoption process” covering topics from Trials and Experimentation to DAB requirements and Allotment planning.

Two new regular digital radio multiplexes launched by PSN Infrastruktura have started in Toruń and Rzeszów, both offering five local DAB+ radio stations. A third multiplex was launched by Dabcom in Tarnów, with initially five local radio stations, and a sixth one to join soon. Further local multiplexes will also be launched soon in Poznań, Warsaw, Katowice and Częstochowa.

A recent study shows that by purely broadcasting on DAB+, Bayerischer Rundfunk could save two million kilowatt hours. In Germany, on average this is a CO2 saving of 856 tons. The transmission of a single BR program only consumes 26% of the energy of a program broadcast on VHF.

Hopes are high that the National Broadcasting Council may announce in January the competition for broadcasting licences on the nationwide DAB+ MUX . Leading commercial broadcasters are sceptical, and remain silent. Prof. Janusz Kawecki from the National Broadcasting Council in an interview with Wirtualnemedia.pl, however, does not hide his optimism.

Since 10 January Austria's DAB+ multiplex includes a programme specifically for Vienna from radio station Welle 1, which up to now had been broadcasting only a unified version of their programme for Austria. The purely Viennese version of Welle 1 starts exactly one year after the programme joined the DAB+ Austria multiplex, and allows the station operator to better target the programme to metropolitan listeners.

lulu.fm starts on Saturday, January 15, 2022 in Vienna on DAB+ digital radio, reaching more than 3 million inhabitants in the greater Vienna area. The new radio station ensures audibility and visibility within the Austrian radio landscape of the LGBTIQ community it serves.

UK communications infrastructure and media services provider Arqiva has welcomed the government’s decision to allow regulator Ofcom to renew two essential national commercial digital radio multiplex licenses to December 2035. The decision will help secure the long-term and sustainable future of Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) – guaranteeing that DAB continues to thrive while offering the widest choice to listeners.

New strategic plan would see the public service broadcaster for French-speaking Belgium shift to all DAB+ by 2027. Under a new strategic plan approved by its board of directors in December, RTBF plans to wind down its FM and DVB-T signals over the next five years.

The publication Broadband TV and News has reported that the public broadcaster in French-speaking Belgium wants to switch off DVB-T and FM radio by the end of this decade. The move is reported as part of a new strategic plan adopted by the RTBF Board of Directors. The aim of the plan is to significantly expand digital transformation, that would be part-funded by the DTT switch-off.

The UK government has announced the renewal of the two UK national digital radio multiplex licences, meaning stability for listeners and broadcasters, and providing long-term continuity for various national commercial stations to broadcast digitally. Radio lovers will be able to enjoy the best of the UK’s national commercial broadcasters’ content through free-to-air digital radio for the next decade.