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WorldDAB had a busy week at the ABU Digital Broadcasting Symposium (DBS) 2025, in Klang, Kuala Lumpur. Held every year, the DBS is the premier event that provides a platform for broadcasters and industry leaders in the region to discuss key advancements, challenges, and innovations shaping the broadcast and media landscape. This year’s event had a significant focus on AI in broadcasting and media production, alongside the latest DAB+ developments. WorldDAB Project Director, Bernie O'Neill, looks back at WorldDAB's activities, presentations, and key findings during the event.

The MIDAS Survey is designed to provide context and insight into how, when and where audio content is being consumed in this current liberated environment. MIDAS shows how listeners are embracing the multi-platform and multi-device offering, as well as how audio-on-demand is contributing to listening behaviour. Weekly audio listening in the UK remains strong, albeit varied between age and gender. Listeners spend on average 28.7 hours a week engaging in their favourite audio type. The total number of weekly hours listened to audio is over 1.6 billion; this has increased by 16% since MIDAS Winter 2019. For all adults, the share of ‘live radio’ dominates audio listening (excluding visual) with 65% of their listening hours spent engaging in this audio type.

Radio Proglas is about to take a significant step in its history. At the end of May this year it will switch off its FM transmitter on Jested, which covered the Liberec area. The decision is part of a wider strategy to switch to DAB+ digital broadcasting and other modern technologies. Radio Proglas' strategy also includes expansion into new locations. This year, the station plans to launch broadcasts in five new areas, the closest of which is the launch of a transmitter on Suchý vrch near Králíky. The radio will continue to use DAB+ distribution in the RTI cz and Teleko digital multiplexes, which, according to director Holík, pays off economically. This strategy is made possible thanks to the gradual switching off of FM transmitters.

The Service des médias, de la connectivité et de la politique numérique (SMC) is launching a public call for applications for sound radio services to be broadcast on the DAB+ digital multiplex. The deadline for submitting applications is 18:00 on 4 April 2025. The call says: "As FM frequencies are saturated, there are currently very few possibilities for coordinating new frequencies or even developing new radio services with wide coverage. This limitation on the development of existing and new radio services is holding back media pluralism, which is of major democratic importance. DAB+ technology makes it possible to remedy this situation by extending the number of radio services that can be broadcast in Luxembourg."

Radio Netwerk Nederland has taken over the operation of the DAB+ network for the municipalities of Delft, Maassluis, Midden Delfland and Westland. Local broadcasters Omroep Delft and WOS (Westland, Maassluis and Midden Delfland) and commercial radio station Lega-C could already be heard via DAB+ on channel 9B for some time. Operation of the network was today taken over by transmitter operator Radio Netwerk Nederland. As a result, the two existing support stations in Delft have been switched off and replaced by one new strong support station in The Hague South. RNN has also temporarily taken over network operation for the municipalities of The Hague, Rijswijk, Leidschendam-Voorburg and Wassenaar on channel 5C.

Bernie O'Neill writes: As we published our latest infographic to coincide with World Radio Day 2025, I wanted to go back to the archives to see how far we’d travelled on our DAB+ journey, compared to some of the earliest editions of our research document. In 2013, the organisation — then known as “WorldDMB” (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) — published its initial data-drop. In the first year of the infographic, the United Kingdom led the way with 20 million receiver sales (including pre-2008 data). Today, this figure stands at an impressive 55 million. Australia, Norway and Switzerland each had over 1 million receivers sold in 2013 — and just over ten years later, those figures now stand at 10m, 9m, and 6m respectively, alongside Germany now totaling 28 million and Italy reporting 12 million sales.

This is not the RIN Italia Network project, which FM-world reported in recent weeks and which will be launched in March, but the broadcaster of the publisher Domenico Zambarelli, with editor-in-chief Massimo Lualdi. The programming - at the moment - is characterised by a pop flow. The identifier simply reads ‘ITALIA NETWORK’. Radio Italia Network can be heard in Lombardy on the DRG DAB mux (channel 7B) and in Veneto on the GoDab mux (channel 8C).

With resolution No. 44/25/CONS of 18 February 2025, the Italian Communications Regulator concluded the fact-finding investigation into the regulation of the DAB+ digital terrestrial radio broadcasting platform. In its resolution closing the fact-finding investigation, Agcom considered adopting a gradual approach, with short-, medium- and long-term interventions. In particular, in the short term, the Authority considers as a priority the need to ensure legal certainty and the continuity of the start-up of the digital radio broadcasting market, by providing for the completion of the assignment of rights of use.

Urban radio station Glxy Radio has as yet started broadcasting on the regional DAB+ network for Noord-Holland and Flevoland. Since last weekend, the station can be found on channel 8B in both provinces. It was recently announced that Glxy has applied for the auction of non-national commercial radio frequencies to be held later this year.

Every year, new transmitters are put into service to ensure an increasingly fine mesh of the territory. The coverage of the metropolitan population by DAB+ has exceeded 50%. All municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants in metropolitan France are now covered and 557 private and public radio stations broadcast their programs in DAB+. 615 transmitters are in service in France. After a second phase of deployment, which was completed in 2024, the two metropolitan multiplexes are preparing a third phase are preparing a third phase of deployment, which will be implemented from the second half of 2025.