News

Australia leads the world in digital audio listening, with the continued adoption and use of new commercial audio options while broadcast (AM/FM and DAB+) radio listening remains buoyant, according to the seventh Infinite Dial Australia report, released today by Edison Research and sponsored by industry body Commercial Radio & Audio, LiSTNR and Triton Digital. Radio listening in the car has remained the top digital audio choice, with 84% of those age 18+ who have been in a car in the last month saying that they listen to radio in the car. This number is up from 80% last year and more than double the 41% who stream music in the car. DAB+ stations have tripled their audience since 2020, driven by a wider variety of content and widespread access in new cars. In 2023, DAB+ listening soared to 7 million people a week, or 32% of people aged 12+, up from 18% last year, and 10% in 2020. “The Infinite Dial 2023 Australia study reveals that radio remains younger Australians’ favourite audio by far, with 76% tuning into radio each week, compared to 50% using TikTok,” Ford Ennals, CEO of CRA said.

The Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, the Arab States Broadcasting Union and WorldDAB are hosting three-part workshop on new developments in DAB+ systems. The workshops will begin on Tuesday, 18 July, running through until Thursday, 20 July, from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. BST (4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. MYT.) This technical workshop will provide broadcasters and other media professionals with updates on the latest DAB+ developments.

Radio needs — and deserves — an easy-to-find, quick-to access spot on the connected car touchscreen. That was the unequivocal message delivered by Jean Philip De Tender, the European Broadcasting Union’s deputy director general, at the WorldDAB Automotive 2023 conference last week. More than 500 delegates from 60 countries gathered at Maison de la Radio, Radio France’s home in Paris, and online for the annual conference. It was organised by WorldDAB, the global industry forum for DAB+ digital radio. The EBU represents public service radio, television, and online services in Europe. Its Connected Cars and Devices Group is focused on retaining radio’s prominence in cars and trucks, along with every other place people tune in across the continent.

The original frequencies of 2CR, Wiltshire Radio and Radio Orwell will fall silent this week as Global turns off more AM transmitters. Smooth Dorset (828 kHz), Smooth Gloucestershire (774 kHz), Smooth Wiltshire (936/1161 kHz), Smooth Suffolk (1170/1251 kHz), Smooth Norfolk (1152 kHz), Smooth Essex (1359/1431 kHz) and Smooth Plymouth (1152 kHz) will all fall silent on 30th June. Also this week, Gold’s mediumwave frequencies covering Peterborough/Cambridge (1332 kHz), Derby (945 kHz), Nottingham (999 kHz) and Northampton (1557 kHz) will all fall silent.

Havant-based community station Angel Radio is to apply for the recently advertised full-time Portsmouth DAB multiplex. The organisation was one of ten groups awarded a temporary nine month licence by Ofcom in 2015 to test the viability of small scale digital radio broadcasting. The trial licence has subsequently been extended multiple times, and now nearly eight years later, Ofcom have advertised a long-term licence for Portsmouth which Angel Radio is applying for. Ash Elford, Angel Radio’s Digital Development Manager said: “The trial Portsmouth DAB multiplex has arguably been one of the leading small scale DAB multiplexes. “The trial Portsmouth DAB multiplex has seen one of the most diverse service line-ups and has been at the forefront of technical innovation, for example, we’ve continually broadcast DAB+ services for longer than anyone else in the UK. We hope that Ofcom recognises this when considering our application.”

In 2022, NLPO was instructed by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) to make preparations for the final roll-out of DAB+ in 2024. To this end, a survey of broadcasters with a temporary DAB+ licence was carried out in recent months, among other things. The aim was to map these broadcasters' experiences with DAB+ as input for the final frequency issuance of DAB+ in 2024.

Do you remember the One Click principle introduced by NL three years ago to reiterate the need for the radio to remain accessible on the dashboard of cars at the touch of a button, as was the case from the introduction of the car radio until the advent of interconnected cars? Well, we are pleased to note that this principle has now been literally borrowed by the WorldDAB Automotive 2023, with repeated speeches extolling its importance, in the face of the invasion of the field on the four wheels of on-demand audio streaming services, such as Spotify (which enjoys a pre-installed icon on almost all new cars).

Since 1 June 2023, a DAB+ test operation for the Heilbronn region as far as Ludwigsburg and Stuttgart has been broadcast from the "Brackenheim 1" telecommunications tower on channel 12B. 580,000 residents will be covered. Dana Diezemann is the initiator of this innovative project. Thomas Kircher from FM Kompakt spoke with Dana Diezemann about the idea, the implementation, but also the hurdles and why broadcasting had to be temporarily stopped again on 30 June 2023.

Listen to hr-iNFO in stereo: This will finally be possible via DAB+ from Monday, 26 June. In addition, new regional variants for hr1 and hr3 will be made technically available so that listeners will be able to hear even more regional programmes exactly from their region from autumn 2023. With digital radio DAB+, interested listeners will then be able to select and receive the new regional programme services in all parts of Hesse.

Those who go to the sunny island of Usedom to switch off can now tune in to even more radio there. NDR is pushing ahead with DAB+ coverage. This time the Baltic resorts of Bansin, Heringsdorf and Ahlbeck are benefiting. NDR is putting another DAB+ transmitter in Block 8B (197.648 MHz) into operation at Heringsdorf. This covers the eastern part of the island of Usedom and also offers good reception in Swinemünde and Misdroy.