News

With seven new cities covered by DAB+ for its Radio FG and FG Dance stations, Maison FG continues to expand its broadcasting reach. The group now has 136 cities covered by DAB+ for Radio FG and 14 for FG Dance. Maison FG announces the launch of Radio FG in Saint-Malo, Vitré, La Roche-sur-Yon, Les Sables d'Olonne and Challans. The station is now broadcast in DAB+ in 136 towns, complementing its FM presence in 41 towns, including Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Nice, Lille and Bordeaux. FG Dance is expanding to Lorient, bringing the number of cities covered by DAB+ to 14, including Paris, Marseille, Nice-Cannes, Bordeaux and the Arcachon Basin. Maison FG's Parisian DAB+ package includes Radio FG, FG Dance, Maxximum and FG Chic, the latter also available in Monaco-Nice, Ibiza, Berlin and Hamburg.

The ORF is softening its previously consistent rejection of DAB+. Since Friday, Ö3 has also been available on digital radio, a pilot project, as the ORF emphasises. ‘As part of the technical pilot project, Hitradio Ö3 has been broadcast throughout Austria via the MUX II platform of ORF subsidiary ORS since 19 December 2025 until further notice,’ the ORF announced. "Among other things, the coverage of the current DAB+ transmitter network in the high-level road network, in tunnels and when switching from FM to DAB is being tested. Subsequently, innovative offerings in the areas of traffic radio, metadata and crisis information will be tested, and an accompanying analysis will also cover the economic efficiency of DAB+ broadcasting."

On 18 December 2025, the regionalised DAB+ platform went live in five regions of North Rhine-Westphalia. Listeners can now receive 42 different private radio stations in five coverage areas in North Rhine-Westphalia via DAB+. Local radio stations in North Rhine-Westphalia and other attractive radio stations will be available digitally via antenna for the first time. The final coverage of the programme distribution will be very high and unprecedented in Germany. The following programmes have been on air since the start of broadcasting: 40 local radio stations in North Rhine-Westphalia; Antenne Schlager; DOMRADIO. Metropol FM, Music Star and Stream D will go on air in February 2026. With the launch of regionalised DAB+ broadcasting in North Rhine-Westphalia, a total of 21 transmission sites have been put into operation in five regions.

This week, TDF is launching nearly forty transmitters to ensure DAB+ radio broadcasting in France, including eighteen in Brittany, Normandy and the Pays de la Loire region. These new deployments, managed and carried out by TDF teams, often require impressive lifting equipment, such as helicopters or cranes. They demonstrate the expertise and technical mastery of TDF's experts and the commitment of its operational teams. The Ploërmel antenna, which has just been commissioned, now provides simultaneous FM and DAB+ radio broadcasting. This new ‘mixed’ technology, which TDF is developing throughout France, is the result of cutting-edge engineering work carried out by TDF's experts, who have a wealth of recognised experience and are based in Liffré and Toulouse.

Announcement of an expression of interest for the distribution of private, national and/or local radio programmes via the RAS DAB+ transmission network. The South Tyrol Broadcasting Corporation (RAS) intends to distribute additional radio programmes from Italian broadcasters via its own DAB+ transmission network. Deadline for submitting expressions of interest: 22 December 2025 at 12:00 noon.

With two new transmitters, the first national programme platform is consolidating the supra-regional transmitter network. The launch will improve reception of a total of 13 nationwide programmes on DAB+ Radio Channel 5C, including Deutschlandfunk, Deutschlandfunk Kultur and Deutschlandfunk Nova. Private stations such as Absolut relax, Klassik Radio and Schwarzwaldradio will also benefit from the launch. The Neuruppin site in northern Brandenburg went live at the beginning of the month. The 181st location went into operation on 15 December, located in the northern Sauerland region near the town of Meschede.

At the end of 2025, DAB+, the digital terrestrial radio broadcasting mode, will continue its roll-out with the commissioning of 90 transmitters on 17 and 18 December 2025. These transmitters will mainly enhance the range of radio stations already available on DAB+, primarily in Brittany and the Pays-de-la-Loire region. Other towns in western France, such as Fontenay-le-Comte, Bernay and Bolbec, will also be covered by DAB+ for the first time. Metropolitan multiplexes, which bring together the main national public and private networks, will launch a total of 69 additional transmitters on 17 December 2025. From now on, the main urban areas of Brittany and the region's road network will be very well covered. The metropolitan offering can also be received on more than 9,000 km of motorway.

2026 will get off to a noisy start, as hotly-anticipated national Scottish radio station, STV Radio, today confirms it will officially launch on Wednesday 7 January. The station promises to cure the January blues with an exciting schedule packed with Scotland’s favourite radio voices and an eclectic music offering with all the best tracks from the 80s, 90s and 2000s. STV Radio’s slogan – Never the Same Song, All Day Long – underpins the station’s commitment to offer a broader, more imaginative music mix every day, with less repetition and loads more brilliant tunes. STV Radio will begin test transmissions this week, rolling out on DAB and DAB+ regions of Scotland in the coming weeks ahead of launch.

Starting this Wednesday, 17 December, RMC is expanding its DAB+ broadcast coverage to new areas in France. This development will initially affect several departments in the west of the country, before a second phase of roll-out planned for the coming months. The aim is to broaden access to the radio's news, talk and sports programmes via digital terrestrial broadcasting. Starting this Wednesday, RMC listeners will now be able to listen to the radio in the Côtes-d'Armor, Finistère, Morbihan and Vendée regions. This first step marks a geographical expansion of the digital terrestrial broadcasting of the sports news talk radio station. The system will be completed in a second phase.

At its meeting on 15 December, the Media Authority of Hesse decided to allocate the requested DAB+ transmission capacities to VIUS SE & Co. KGaA for the distribution of the nationwide radio programme ‘NIUS – Das Radio’ in Hesse. The allocation is for the period from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2035. ‘NIUS – Das Radio’ has a nationwide licence from the Berlin-Brandenburg Media Authority (mabb). ‘NIUS – Das Radio’ is already broadcast via various DAB+ multiplexes in the federal states of Berlin-Brandenburg, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Saarland, Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia. In Hesse, the programme will in future be broadcast via the DAB+ multiplex 6A ‘Hessen Nord’ and the DAB+ multiplex 12C ‘Hessen Süd’.