News

Hopes are high that the National Broadcasting Council may announce in January the competition for broadcasting licences on the nationwide DAB+ MUX . Leading commercial broadcasters are sceptical, and remain silent. Prof. Janusz Kawecki from the National Broadcasting Council in an interview with Wirtualnemedia.pl, however, does not hide his optimism.

Since 10 January Austria's DAB+ multiplex includes a programme specifically for Vienna from radio station Welle 1, which up to now had been broadcasting only a unified version of their programme for Austria. The purely Viennese version of Welle 1 starts exactly one year after the programme joined the DAB+ Austria multiplex, and allows the station operator to better target the programme to metropolitan listeners.

lulu.fm starts on Saturday, January 15, 2022 in Vienna on DAB+ digital radio, reaching more than 3 million inhabitants in the greater Vienna area. The new radio station ensures audibility and visibility within the Austrian radio landscape of the LGBTIQ community it serves.

UK communications infrastructure and media services provider Arqiva has welcomed the government’s decision to allow regulator Ofcom to renew two essential national commercial digital radio multiplex licenses to December 2035. The decision will help secure the long-term and sustainable future of Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) – guaranteeing that DAB continues to thrive while offering the widest choice to listeners.

New strategic plan would see the public service broadcaster for French-speaking Belgium shift to all DAB+ by 2027. Under a new strategic plan approved by its board of directors in December, RTBF plans to wind down its FM and DVB-T signals over the next five years.

The publication Broadband TV and News has reported that the public broadcaster in French-speaking Belgium wants to switch off DVB-T and FM radio by the end of this decade. The move is reported as part of a new strategic plan adopted by the RTBF Board of Directors. The aim of the plan is to significantly expand digital transformation, that would be part-funded by the DTT switch-off.

The UK government has announced the renewal of the two UK national digital radio multiplex licences, meaning stability for listeners and broadcasters, and providing long-term continuity for various national commercial stations to broadcast digitally. Radio lovers will be able to enjoy the best of the UK’s national commercial broadcasters’ content through free-to-air digital radio for the next decade.

On the initiative of the Ministry of Information Technologies "CRRT" DUK, from December 27 of this year, DAB+ standard digital radio channels were launched in a test format for the residents of the city of Tashkent from the Tashkent TV Tower. At a time when Europe is moving from analogue FM to modern digital broadcasting, the Republic of Uzbekistan was one of the first in Central Asia to introduce modern technologies in the field of radio broadcasting to launch DAB+ standard digital broadcasting in a test format.

Swiss radio station JAMES FM is expanding its DAB+ broadcasting area to include the important economic region of Zurich. What began as a DAB+ station in Central Switzerland has now a loyal audience throughout Switzerland. Since the beginning of the year JAMES FM can also be received on DAB+ in the greater Zurich area. Advertisers can book campaigns in the entire DAB+ broadcasting area or in the individual DAB broadcasting regions “Central Switzerland” and “Zurich”. In addition to long-standing advertising customers, well-known new partners have joined for the DAB+ launch in Zurich.

Czech Republic's DAB+ network operators are preparing to expand the coverage of their digital radio networks. New transmitters are currently undergoing international coordination with regulators in neighbouring countries who must comment on their technical parameters.