News

South Africa regulator ICASA has published draft digital radio regulation, outlining its intention to introduce licences for DAB+ digital radio. The draft regulation is open for consultation until 29 December 2020.

In 2021, DAB+ radio stations in Switzerland are set to benefit from financial packages covering around 50% of the DAB+ broadcasting cost, as opposed to 30% as originally outlined.

DAB+ is taking off in France. DAB+ launched in Bordeaux and Toulouse at the start of November, and is now available to 30% of the population. Two national multiplexes are set to launch in 2021, hosting a total of 25 stations.

Next year is set to be an important year for French radio, as confirmed by Nicolas Curien of the Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel, at the WorldDAB General Assembly. Not only will France be celebrating 100 years since the launch of its first radio broadcasts, it’ll also celebrate the rollout of national DAB+ services, with two multiplexes launching in summer 2021.

At last week’s General Assembly, the BBC’s Sustainability Data Scientist Chloe Fletcher presented the a BBC study comparing the energy footprint of BBC radio across AM, FM, DAB, IP and DTV radio services. The study found that DAB radio services have the lowest energy consumption per device hour.

Media Broadcast announced an expansion of the transmitter network for the nationwide digital radio offering - nine additional locations are expected to be covered by this expansion by the end of 2020.

Sports Entertainment Network (SEN) has announced plans to launch a new DAB+ all sports station in Mandurah, to be known as SEN Peel, on the back of another month of digital growth in Western Australia.

Bauer Media's launch of three additional radio stations - including the launch of new station Pop FM 80s - brings the total number of Bauer national stations on DAB+ to nine. "This is a perfect time for us to expand on DAB+. Listening is increasing and with DAB+ as standard in all new cars, we expect even more digital listening to come" said CEO Jim Receveur.

This year’s interoperability workshop organised by the WorldDAB Technical Committee will be held virtually, on 18 November from 14:00-16:00 CET. The purpose of the workshop is to provide a discussion platform for all technical aspects on operating the DAB system. Conclusions reached will be reviewed by the TC and may lead to specification updates.

Slovakia's telecommunications regulator RU has initiated public consultations on the use of several frequency resources. Operators have been invited to respond by 19 November.