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The CSA report was adopted by Arcom during its meeting on May 17th. This document, submitted each year to Parliament and the Government, constitutes a means of evaluating the action of the CSA and its legal environment. In 2021, despite the constraints linked to the health crisis, the Board has endeavoured to continue the deployment of DAB+ in a sustained manner. Planning work has been carried out for the preparation of the DAB+ call no. 9 provided for in the roadmap of the DAB+ calls 2022-2024, in particular for the areas of Fréjus, Lorient and Quimper.

New data from Arcom shows continued growth in ownership of DAB+ receivers. The regulator's "Observatoire de l’équipement audiovisuel" report on audiovisual equipment in France includes data for radio for 2021. 15% of individuals have a home DAB+ radio (+2 points in one year), while 14% now have a DAB+ compatible car radio (+1 point since 2020). "The roll-out of DAB+ accelerated at the end of 2021. By the end of 2022, 50% of the French population will be covered by DAB+, which should contribute to increasing the penetration rate of equipment," said Arcom's Juliette Théry.

Ofcom is consulting on the renewal of the UK’s two national commercial DAB digital radio multiplexes. These multiplexes, operated by Digital One Limited and Sound Digital Limited, carry national commercial DAB services. This year, the Government gave Ofcom the power to renew these licences until 2035. The consultation closes on 21 July 2022, and following this, Ofcom says it will set out its final views and a timetable for renewal of both licences.

Since 3 June, AirZen Radio now covers part of Switzerland on DAB+. The radio broadcasts from three transmitters which allow it to cover the cities of Lausanne and Geneva, as well as the perimeter of Lake Geneva. AirZen Radio is positioned as "the new 100% positive national radio, broadcast in digital terrestrial radio (DAB+) from Île-de-France to Marseille, via Auxerre, Dijon, Mâcon, Lyon, Valence, Avignon, Arles. .. a potential audience of 24 million listeners".

The Fête de la radio, which took place during the Paris Radio Show last week, was the occasion for great announcements in connection with DAB+. And, since the opening of new multiplexes in October 2021, 42% of the mainland population is now covered by this technology... In 2022 and 2023, 18 major cities will be covered by DAB+. The 2022-2024 roadmap already provides for the strengthening of the DAB+ coverage network in 50 new cities, starting with Laval and Valence, which will be the subject of a call for applications from 2022.

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.