News

Smooth Christmas will be the only all Christmas station broadcasting nationally on DAB, expected to cease on Boxing Day and return to Smooth Extra.

Previous pop-ups, which live on a temporary DAB channel as well as online, have focused on the Eurovision or a country music theme, as well as an additional channel for the Olympics. Pop-up radio stations in the past have had good effect on sales of DAB Digital Radio receivers and are incorporated into RAJAR, though the listening figures are not released by the BBC.

DAB radio is now standard equipment on Clio and Captur models fitted with either the MediaNav or R-Link infotainment systems meaning that all, apart from entry level versions, now come with DAB as standard.

In her speech at the WorldDAB General Assembly, Dorothee Bär outlined how she has asked radio market actors to join a “digital radio board" in April 2015, the goal of which is to shape the future of broadcasting. Having met already twice this year,the participants have agreed on three points: the creation of a digital radio project office; the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure will promote a “smart radio” rule at EU level, and different scenarios will be investigated in order to assess financial impact and possible gaps in funding.

I attended both the Digital Radio UK ‘Count Down to Digital’ event and the WorldDAB’s global digital radio conference last week and I’m happy to report that the general mood for the next twelve months is overwhelmingly positive. This is down to two significant announcements; Norway is the first country to commit to a digital switchover date and the UK will see the biggest ever expansion of commercial radio in 2016.

Panjab Radio has officially begun broadcasting in Berlin via DAB+, making it the first British Asian radio station to do so. The station will simulcast its main UK output to Germany.

Digital radio – whether DAB or DAB+ is a huge opportunity for the radio industry and for radio listeners. If radio is to compete in a fast moving multi-media digital landscape then it must have greater flexibility to grow, innovate and engage with its audience, and in this the limits of analogue, as a distribution platform for radio, are all too evident. AM spectrum is no longer useful. FM spectrum is now full and it simply does not have the capacity to deliver the range of services and functions that digital can.

The headline change is the addition of DAB radio as standard equipment on Clio and Captur models fitted with either the MediaNav or R-Link infotainment systems. As a result, all models, apart from entry level versions, now come with DAB as standard.

The French manufacturer is making DAB radio standard on all Clios and Capturs fitted with its MediaNav infotainment system, meaning that all but the entry-level editions of both vehicles get digital radio included. The MediaNav system is also getting ...

DAB radio is now standard equipment on both, fitted with either the MediaNav or R-Link infotainment systems meaning that all, apart from entry level versions, now come with DAB as standard.