News

The operator of the current multiplex for digital radios Color DAB+, the company JOE Media of entrepreneur Miroslav Pýcha, is planning territorial expansion into other regions of the Czech Republic. Everything will depend on the interest of commercial radios. The already existing Color DAB+ multiplex, on which the Kiss, Classic Praha, Country Radio, Color Music, Hey, Expres FM, Beat or Spin radios broadcast digitally, covers mainly Prague and part of Central Bohemia. The result of the auction will thus have an impact on Color DAB+ in this region - as Pýcha told Borovan.cz, he would like to switch the digital radio multiplex from the current channel 7C to channel 6A within the auctioned frequencies (regional network R14) in the near future.

"The other day I was at an event where many people said that the future of radio is that its content will end up exclusively on large third-party platforms. And it must have given them a great deal of satisfaction, because there is nothing like a renewal of votes for great and much-applauded nonsense. But no major radio broadcaster in the world is giving back its broadcasting licences to place its content offer exclusively on third party platforms. Among other things, because there seems to be nothing worse than ending up as something with no personality and hardly recognisable, with your content offer diluted among audio products of all kinds. But yes, there may be something worse: that radio loses its identity as a medium, which is what has brought it this far over the last hundred-odd years."

On 13 March 2024, the Joint Committees VII (Culture, Science and Education) and IX (Transport, Posts and Telecommunications) of the Chamber of Deputies invited the Government to consider the advisability of extending from 5 to 10 years the exemption of the payment of the administrative fees of the contributions for the use of DAB+ radio frequencies, as well as to provide for the starting date of such exemption from the actual beginning of the use of the frequencies and not from the date of issuance of the notices for the relevant assignment. Aeranti-Corallo takes a very positive view of this indication, as it incorporates its own proposals in this regard made at the hearing on 23 January.

Country Radio, Kiss, Radio 1, Radio Beat, Radio Spin and Signal Radio are the brands that their operator, Radio United Broadcasting, wants to distribute via DAB+ technology, its chief executive Martin Hroch told the Digital Radio portal. Negotiations are currently underway about the form of distribution. "We are in the early stages of negotiations so it would not be appropriate to comment on anything. But we want to distribute the signal of all our six stations in DAB+," Hroch said. As a result, Radio United Broadcasting plans to place Country Radio, Kiss, Radio 1, Radio Beat, Radio Spin and Signal Radio on the digital multiplexes. "Our goal is to cover the territory of the Czech Republic as efficiently as possible in terms of price-performance ratio," added Martin Hroch.

With the activation of the Brescia transmitter, the coverage of the multi-regional DRG DAB Consortium in Lombardy gets extended. The Brescia transmitter from the Vedetta site was switched on. This transmitter operates, like the one recently activated in Milan, on channel 9C on the 206.352 Mhz frequency with service in Brescia and provinces, in adding with the Bergamo transmitter, soon to be activated, road coverage up to Milan will also be completed.

The DAB+ audience size in Australia has increased in the first GFK Radio 360 survey of 2024, driven by substantial growth in Sydney and Melbourne. The MMM suite of stations gained 91k listeners collectively in Sydney, and another 26k in Melbourne. Double J put 43k listeners on in Sydney taking their Sydney cumulative audience to 105k, with more moderate gains and losses in the other capitals. Coles Radio are on top in Brisbane, adding 36k listeners and almost doubling their audience to 81k. CADA remains on top in Sydney despite substantial changes to its programming and personnel made at the end of last year. It rose by 5k listeners in Sydney and Melbourne respectively.

The first ratings of 2024 have shown 82% of Australians – a record 12.26 million people – are listening to commercial radio, while GfK Radio Survey 1 also showed promising growth in younger audiences. “Audiences are continuing to explore their digital options, with 3.2 million people aged 10 and over listening to commercial radio via streaming, and 4.7 million listening to commercial radio on a DAB device,” said CRA chief executive officer Ford Ennals. Commercial DAB+ stations also saw growth in younger audiences, with listeners aged 10-24 up by 5% to 899 thousand. “CRA has just invested in a major advertising campaign around DAB+ in January and February, and we are pleased to see that could be having an impact,” Mr Ennals said.

On 12 March, maRadio.be, the cooperative society representing 90% of the French-speaking Belgian radio audience, which was celebrating its 10th anniversary, brought the sector together at the 2024 edition of Digital Radio Day, during which it presented the results of the 6ᵉ wave of its study devoted to monitoring the digital transition of radio in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. In the space of just a few years, digital channels for listening to radio have come to the fore. At the same time, FM is continuing its meteoric decline: while it accounted for 82% of listening volume in 2018, it now accounts for just 54%. Only 23% of Belgian listeners listen exclusively to analogue radio. On the digital side, there has been steady growth, with 46% of listening volume, including 21% via DAB+, 17% via the internet and 9% on television.

Bauer Media Audio UK has today announced that it will increase the distribution of its LGBTQ+ dedicated station, Hits Radio Pride. This April, listeners will be able to access the station on DAB across even more areas in the UK, including Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Leeds, Birmingham and Swansea. The change will grow Hits Radio Pride’s reach more than threefold, broadcasting to over 32m across the UK. The station, launched in August 2020, was the UK’s first national commercial LGBTQ+ radio station by a major broadcaster.

Austria's digital radio landscape is becoming more colourful and growing - and with it Austria's largest private radio station kronehit. The media authority KommAustria has granted the broadcasting network operator ORS licences for the construction and operation of a nationwide multiplex platform as well as for five regional multiplexes for the transmission of a total of 28 new DAB+ stations. Broadcasting is authorised from the end of June. The nationwide programme bouquet includes two completely new kronehit stations: "Radio Rot Weiss Rot" and "Super 80s". The other two future kronehit radio programmes are included in a regional multiplex platform for Lower Austria and Burgenland. They are called "Eurodance X-Press" and "Pirate Radio".