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The German Commission on Licensing and Supervision (ZAK) has received four applications for the second nationwide DAB+ multiplex licence. Due to the number of applicants, ZAK has now launched its ‘Communications Procedure’, to determine whether any of the applicants - Digital Audio Broadcasting Platform, Absolut Digital, Media Broadcast Digital Radio and Radio digital GmgH - can agree on a joint application.

James Cridland gives his thoughts on how Radiodays Europe 2017 highlighted the successes of an industry driven by collaboration for common goals. One such example being the story from Norway, where the process of FM disconnection has begun, moving the country to a digital-only (DAB+) broadcasting system.

The Model One Digital is a Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connected radio featuring DAB and FM, that can also stream services such as Tidal, Spotify and Deezer.

Austrian telecommunications regulator RTR has committed to provide four million euros from its digitisation fund to support the introduction of DAB+ digital radio in Austria. The allocation of the funds, for the period up to 2020, has been set out in a report published today.

Supporters of the analog switch off in Norway put forward the benefits of DAB+, including lower costs and more channels. Ole Jørgen Torvmark, the CEO of Digital Radio Norway gave his thoughts on the switchover at Radiodays Europe earlier this week.

Austrian telecommunications regulator RTR is providing up to four million euros for the launch of DAB+ services. Half the fund is planned for the tender, which runs until June, and the remaining two million is devoted to any future calls for tenders by 2020. A maximum of 50% of the actual costs are subsidized. "If, for example, a nationwide service with 15 programs were to be launched, then we could imagine providing about 1.5 million for the radio operators involved over a three-year period. A further 500,000 is available to promote regional DAB+ coverings", explained RTR's Managing Director, Alfred Grinschgl.

Thailand’s National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission is to launch digital radio in 2018 and is finalising guidelines before the start of a nationwide trial. DAB+ licenses are to be sold gradually nationwide, regionally and then locally.

The BBC’s Director of Radio and Music, Bob Shennan, set the tone at this year’s RadioDays Europe conference in Amsterdam with a statement of his ambition “to reinvent and grow radio”. Speakers across the three-day event reinforced the message that radio remains in good health, despite increased competition from streaming audio and other platforms.

Radiodays Europe 2017 came to a close yesterday after three days at the RAI Convention Center in Amsterdam. A notable session from the conference discussed how Norway has scrapped FM broadcasting in favor of DAB+ and digital broadcasting.

Radioinfo took the opportunity during Radiodays Europe to ask Ole Jørgen Torvmark, the CEO of Digital Radio Norway, for his views on Norway's switchover to DAB+ digital radio.