News

The DAB+ audience size in Australia has increased in the first GFK Radio 360 survey of 2024, driven by substantial growth in Sydney and Melbourne. The MMM suite of stations gained 91k listeners collectively in Sydney, and another 26k in Melbourne. Double J put 43k listeners on in Sydney taking their Sydney cumulative audience to 105k, with more moderate gains and losses in the other capitals. Coles Radio are on top in Brisbane, adding 36k listeners and almost doubling their audience to 81k. CADA remains on top in Sydney despite substantial changes to its programming and personnel made at the end of last year. It rose by 5k listeners in Sydney and Melbourne respectively.

The first ratings of 2024 have shown 82% of Australians – a record 12.26 million people – are listening to commercial radio, while GfK Radio Survey 1 also showed promising growth in younger audiences. “Audiences are continuing to explore their digital options, with 3.2 million people aged 10 and over listening to commercial radio via streaming, and 4.7 million listening to commercial radio on a DAB device,” said CRA chief executive officer Ford Ennals. Commercial DAB+ stations also saw growth in younger audiences, with listeners aged 10-24 up by 5% to 899 thousand. “CRA has just invested in a major advertising campaign around DAB+ in January and February, and we are pleased to see that could be having an impact,” Mr Ennals said.

On 12 March, maRadio.be, the cooperative society representing 90% of the French-speaking Belgian radio audience, which was celebrating its 10th anniversary, brought the sector together at the 2024 edition of Digital Radio Day, during which it presented the results of the 6ᵉ wave of its study devoted to monitoring the digital transition of radio in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. In the space of just a few years, digital channels for listening to radio have come to the fore. At the same time, FM is continuing its meteoric decline: while it accounted for 82% of listening volume in 2018, it now accounts for just 54%. Only 23% of Belgian listeners listen exclusively to analogue radio. On the digital side, there has been steady growth, with 46% of listening volume, including 21% via DAB+, 17% via the internet and 9% on television.

Bauer Media Audio UK has today announced that it will increase the distribution of its LGBTQ+ dedicated station, Hits Radio Pride. This April, listeners will be able to access the station on DAB across even more areas in the UK, including Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Leeds, Birmingham and Swansea. The change will grow Hits Radio Pride’s reach more than threefold, broadcasting to over 32m across the UK. The station, launched in August 2020, was the UK’s first national commercial LGBTQ+ radio station by a major broadcaster.

Austria's digital radio landscape is becoming more colourful and growing - and with it Austria's largest private radio station kronehit. The media authority KommAustria has granted the broadcasting network operator ORS licences for the construction and operation of a nationwide multiplex platform as well as for five regional multiplexes for the transmission of a total of 28 new DAB+ stations. Broadcasting is authorised from the end of June. The nationwide programme bouquet includes two completely new kronehit stations: "Radio Rot Weiss Rot" and "Super 80s". The other two future kronehit radio programmes are included in a regional multiplex platform for Lower Austria and Burgenland. They are called "Eurodance X-Press" and "Pirate Radio".

Multilingual radio diversity in Berlin: The Media Council of the Medienanstalt Berlin-Brandenburg (mabb) has decided to award two free Berlin DAB+ programme slots to the French-German programme "FG CHIC. Berlin" and the Turkish-German programme "Metropol FM". "The Berlin-Brandenburg radio landscape is also unique thanks to its diversity of languages and topics," says Martin Gorholt, Chairman of the mabb Media Council. "From now on, listeners will have even more opportunities to discover this special diversity of our radio landscape for themselves. With 'Metropol FM', an established station for Turkish-speaking citizens can now also be received via DAB+. And 'FG CHIC. Berlin' is another station that brings the French music and creative scene to the capital region."

ORS receives one nationwide and five regional digital radio licences and begins expanding the DAB+ platform with immediate effect. From 21 June 2024, a diverse and exciting new programme bouquet will be launched in Austria with 28 new radio stations. Last summer, the licences for nationwide and regional digital radio coverage via DAB+ were put out to tender by RTR. The Austrian Communications Authority has now granted ORS comm the licence to operate a further nationwide terrestrial multiplex platform for digital terrestrial radio in the DAB+ standard (MUX III). A total of 14 very different radio programmes can now be broadcast nationwide, providing a diverse audience with information and colourful entertainment - including many well-known radio brands as well as some newcomers.

The Austrian Communications Authority (KommAustria) has granted the Austrian broadcasting network operator ORS comm GmbH & Co KG (ORS) a total of six licences for the construction and operation of a nationwide multiplex platform as well as for five further regional multiplexes for the transmission of a total of 28 DAB+ digital radio stations. This brings the total number of existing and future DAB+ stations in Austria to 58. With the licences, ORS will be able to broadcast a planned programme bouquet of 14 DAB+ radio stations in a nationwide coverage area with a population reach of 79% from the end of June 2024. Also from the end of June, broadcasting operations can start in the five regional coverage areas with two to five programmes each, totalling a further 14 programmes.

English text of the speech by Ángel García Castillejo, RTVE's Director of Audiovisual Policies, Public Service and International, at the launch of DAB+ broadcasts in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Murcia and Bilbao on World Radio Day, 13 February 2024. "If we are not able to offer the DAB+ service, they are not going to come to the radio. If we are not able to take those steps, radio will disappear. There are no more excuses," he says. "We need, and I believe that this is the challenge where the whole radio sector has a common denominator, a new national technical plan for digital radio, where we can somehow redress the mistakes made in the past and where the whole radio sector feels comfortable to evolve to this new offer that is closer and more appropriate to the reality that our listeners, the Spanish citizens, are demanding of us today."

Arcom's "Ma radio DAB+" reports for La Réunion that "two experiments in broadcasting radio services in DAB+ are authorised by Arcom in Saint-Denis from March 1, 2024." It is understood that the Fédération des Radios Associatives de La Réunion (FAR) multiplex is on air and includes: Radio Arc en Ciel, RIL, Kontak, ACB, Radio Soleil, Mixte 9, Salazes FM, Pikan and Sud Plus; and that 23 radio stations are licensed in total, including 15 new to the area.