News

The final Guidelines for the procedures for the allocation of usage rights to DAB+ consortia owned by licensees for local radio broadcasting have been published by the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy. In addition to the Final Guidelines on the criteria and methods that will be adopted to proceed with the allocation of rights of use to local network operators for the DAB+ service, the document containing the summary of the contributions of the participants in the national public consultation, carried out on the version of the guidelines published on 13 December 2022, with the Ministry's evaluations was also published.

ROCK ANTENNE Hamburg is expanding its transmission area via DAB+ to include the whole of Schleswig-Holstein from April in order to reach more listeners. Managing Director Matthias Schneekloth explains: “ROCK ANTENNE Hamburg has always been firmly connected to the “True North” and its neighbors in Schleswig-Holstein. We are already reporting in our news and in the service sections such as weather or event tips for Schleswig-Holstein. We will continue to expand this reporting and expand our broadcasting range for the entire federal state with the digital radio standard DAB+.”

On Thursday 30 March, Évasion announced its arrival in the city of Troyes in Aube. Thanks to DAB+ technology, Évasion promises to broadcast a varied programme made up of news, service info and games. Évasion is already propelling its DAB+ broadcasts in Aisne (in Saint-Quentin), in Île-de-France (in Paris), in Seine-Maritime (in Le Havre and Rouen) and in the Somme (in Abbeville and Amiens).

DIVICON MEDIA, a nationwide service provider and operator of numerous radio networks in the private and public sector, will be putting three new DAB+ regions around the most populous cities in Saxony, Chemnitz, Dresden and Leipzig, into operation from 3 April, from 10 a.m. This means that more than 30 additional stations can be received in Saxony via the growing DAB+ distribution channel (see ma 2023 Audio I).

General Motors plans to phase out widely-used Apple CarPlay and Android Auto technologies that allow drivers to bypass a vehicle's infotainment systems, shifting instead to built-in infotainment systems developed with Google for future electric vehicles. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto systems allow users to mirror their smartphone screens in a vehicle's dashboard display. GM's decision to stop offering those systems in future electric vehicles, starting with the 2024 Chevrolet Blazer, could help the automaker capture more data on how consumers drive and charge EVs.

The Czech Telecommunications Authority received comments on the planned auction of frequencies for nationwide and regional digital radio networks. It acknowledged part of the objections and will adjust the procurement documentation accordingly. One of the objections concerned the requirement to cover at least 80 percent of the population of the given territory with a regional network signal within two years. The authority partially acknowledged that it was too strict. "For regional allocations, the plan is to loosen the required coverage over time," it said.

Digital radio is a success in Europe and the EU now mandates that all cars sold in the common market must have a DAB+ receiver to receive free to air broadcast radio. But it has not always been an easy road to achieve success. The Radiodays Europe conference has heard that in Germany radio only has 4.1% of the advertising market because it is divided up into state licence areas and no analog broadcaster has been able to operate nation wide. That puts German commercial radio at a disadvantage compared with the top European countries that get 10% or more of their country’s ad revenue. This situation is now being rectified because Germany’s DAB+ licences enable nationwide broadcasting and new players, according to Erwin Linnenbach from Teutocast.

RTÉ has announced that it is ceasing the long wave 252 service for Radio 1 from next month. The move was originally announced in 2014 but was postponed because of protests from Irish organisations in Britain. RTÉ said in a statement that the LW 252 is no longer sustainable as the transmitter in Summerhill, Co Meath uses up 2.5% of the organisation's energy use. The current cost is €250,000 a year and this could rise to £400,000 next year, it says.

Rainer Schnepfleitner, Head of the Office for Communications (AK) in Liechtenstein, and Severin Näscher, Regulation Audiovisual Media of the AK, presented a project to set up a DAB+ multiplex to cover Liechtenstein. Stefan Rauschenberger, head of the media law department at RTR Medien, provided information on the status of DAB+ in Austria and the current consultation on a selection principle ordinance with the aim of putting out to tender another nationwide or regional DAB+ multiplex in Austria.

As of 30 March, DAB+ listeners in the northern-most federal state can receive a significantly expanded range of stations. With the launch of the new DAB+ bouquet in four regions, the total number of stations that can be received digitally between the North and Baltic Seas via DAB+ in the best quality has increased to up to 52, which is a multiple of the existing FM station offering. By dividing the transmitter network into four regions with separate programme packages, the greatest possible variety of transmitters with national, regional and local programmes was realised.