News

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) is to trial ‘visual radio’ at the Zurich 2014 European Athletics Championships. The slideshow can be delivered on platforms including DAB+ Slideshow, available on certain DAB car receivers, on hybrid radio (RadioVIS/RadioDNS) working with FM or digital radio, where receivers automatically download and display images as they are produced, and the web via a Javascript component.

It hasn't exactly been a Rachmaninov v rock'n'roll battle to the death, but last week digital BBC Radio 6 Music snuck past sister analogue station Radio 3 for the first time in the quarterly Rajar audience figures.

The Bayern Digital Radio GmbH has restructured the transmitter network in the channel 12D (Bavaria) and the local network in Ingolstadt. By reducing to 26 locations and simultaneously increasing the performance of 16 selected locations in the channel 12D penetration rate of digital radio in Bavaria has remained almost constant (88% road / 54% home / Source: BLM).

Rohde & Schwarz will give a live demonstration of the R&S Tx9 transmitter generation at IBC 2014. The company says it will show how the Tx9 helps reduce the operating costs of transmitter networks, for FM, DAB and TV. This transmitter generation features energy efficiency, a compact design and redundancy concepts that can reduce costs by more than 70%

Latest Q2 2014 report from RAJAR show that the digital listening is going from strength to strength. DAB remains the most popular platform for digital listening, with 237 million hours, up 1% year on year. DAB listening growth has been driven by the increase of DAB listening in-car.

Italian regulator AGCOM agree to proceed with the planning of new regional areas for T DAB +.

The latest figures from Rajar for Q2 2014 show that DAB radio is still the most popular device when it comes to listening digitally, accounting for 65% of all digital hours (24% of Total Hours).

6 Music has attracted 1.89m people listening on digital radio only, whilst BBC Radio 3, which has a full network of FM transmitters across the country pulls in 1.8m. Ford Ennals, CEO of Digital Radio UK, says: “Digital listening held steady in Q2 2104 but there has been a huge shift in radio listening over the last few years. This is highlighted by the decline in analogue listening to 56.6% which is even more extreme in home, where analogue and digital listening share are now nearly equal. For digital listening to increase to the next level will require significantly more growth in digital listening in car, as well as for local DAB coverage to be expanded towards FM equivalence and for more national digital-only stations to be launched.”

BBC Radio 6 Music's listening figures have overtaken those of BBC Radio 3 for the first time. An average weekly audience of 1.89m tuned in to the digital-only rock station over the last quarter, a 5.5% increase on the same period last year. 6 Music's audience has doubled since a public campaign saved it from a proposed closure in 2010. "BBC Radio 6 Music continues to perform well in the digital space, with Shaun Keaveny and Steve Lamacq reaching record audiences," Bob Shennan, controller of Radio 2 and 6 Music.

At Bauer Media, which owns channels such as Magic 105.4, Liverpool’s Radio City and Edinburgh’s Forth 1, more than half of listeners (50.8 per cent) tuned in through digital, its highest ever number and higher than the industry average of 36.8 per cent. More than three quarters (82 per cent) of Absolute Radio listeners tuned in via digital.