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More and more listeners are using DAB+ stations. The number of DAB+ radios in households is growing, while the range of regional and national stations is steadily increasing. According to the figures published by the Media-Analysis Association (ag.ma) in the spring, the share of DAB+ in the widest group of listeners is now 24.5 percent (listeners aged 14 and over, ma 2021 audio: 20.4 percent).

The Bureau de la Radio (bringing together the major private national radio stations), SIRTI (union of independent radio stations) and Radio France will create an association dedicated to the promotion of digital radio (DAB+). On the model of maRadio.be in Belgium, the association "Ensemble pour le DAB+" will carry out communication actions financed by the member radios and will be supported up to 1 million euros by the Ministry of Culture, following the principle “1 euro spent for 1 euro public”. The statutes will be filed soon.

Radio Festival 2022: on June 2 and 3, Arcom celebrated France's favourite media. The president of Arcom, Roch-Olivier Maistre, spoke at the opening of the Assises de la Radio. He said: "Since the opening of new multiplexes last October, 42% of the metropolitan population is now covered by DAB+. Three multiplexes started up very recently, on May 17, in the areas of Orléans, Poitiers and Tours. New cities will be covered before the end of the year, bringing DAB+ coverage to over 50% of the population. In order to enable all radio stations to take advantage of the advances made possible by DAB+, Arcom has encouraged the public authorities to strengthen support for radio stations, particularly associative [community] ones, in this new phase of deployment."

The public and commercial radio stations are once again organising “Digital Radio Week.” From Monday 6 to Friday 10 June, the radio stations will pay extensive attention to DAB+. The action week will be held for the ninth time. From Monday, for five days, attention will be paid to radio via DAB+ by the public and commercial radio stations. How the stations will implement this week differs per station. Most radio stations will start giving away DAB+ radios again.

The new national commercial DAB+ network is now running at full power. In recent days, Broadcast Partners has adjusted the last channels and put them on the planned power, RadioCorp director Herbert Visser confirms to RadioWereld.NL. Initially, all 29 planned transmitters, spread across the country, were switched on, but some of the transmitters still ran at reduced power, due to the worldwide chip shortage.

driftFM, the Swiss radio station with the slogan “where country meets rock”, can now be received on DAB+ in the south-eastern Switzerland region. From now on, this will expand the circle of listeners many times over, because the new catchment area has 120,000 inhabitants.

The government has given the go-ahead for more than 20 new radio stations to launch in Oldham. The new digital stations will be a part of the Oldham and Rochdale small-scale DAB multiplex. Kevin Bailey, content director at Credible Focus, said: "Throughout the process, we’ve worked with smaller stations across Oldham and Rochdale, to make sure that access to the digital platform is straightforward and affordable. The multiplex is expected to increase the range of radio to listeners across Oldham, including both national and local broadcasters."

On the occasion of the Fête de la Radio and the Paris Radio Show 2022, TDF is launching its trial DAB+ broadcasts from the Eiffel Tower. In March, TDF carried out a technical operation at the top of the Eiffel Tower to install a DAB+ antenna by helicopter. Designed by TDF experts, this new antenna dedicated to broadcasting digital terrestrial radio will provide optimal coverage for the 12 million inhabitants of the Ile-de-France region. TDF is also participating in accelerating the deployment of DAB+ digital radio in France by commissioning four new local or regional multiplexes in the areas of Poitiers, Orléans and, this summer, La Rochelle. Since the launch of DAB+ in 2014, TDF has deployed more than 60 broadcast transmitters and thus broadcasts around a hundred programs in DAB+ in major cities such as Paris, Marseille, Bordeaux, Lille, Nice, Toulon, Avignon and Annecy .

SSR is improving DAB+ coverage in Thurgau, St. Gallen and ValaisIn during May and June 2022, with new DAB+ antennas being installed at the following sites: Dussnang (canton of Thurgau): May 19, 2022; Vättis (canton of St. Gallen): 27 May 2022; Weisstannen (canton of St. Gallen): 31 May 2022; Gondo (canton of Valais): June 16, 2022. The four antennas make it possible to cover so-called whitespots, where DAB+ coverage was previously insufficient.

By the end of this year, Czech Radio will launch nine new locations that will spread the signal of its digital multiplex ČRo DAB+, and it expects further development in the coming years. This was announced today at the Digimedia 2022 conference by Karel Zýka, Director of the Department of Technology and Public Media Management. In his case, around 85% of the population should have sufficient DAB+ indoor coverage in 2025.