News

The Communications Networks and Services Agency of the Republic of Slovenia has published a Decision on the launch of a public tender procedure for the award of 24 licences for the broadcasting of a digital radio programme throughout the territory of the Republic of Slovenia in the Official Gazette of 5 July 2024. It invites interested applicants to submit their bids by 3 September 2024. The licences are divided into two lots: eight licences will be awarded to bidders for their programmes already on analogue radio frequencies or who have already obtained digital rights for a smaller geographic area (e.g. East R2, West R2, Ljubljana area) of the total area of Slovenia; while sixteen licences will be awarded to bidders for their programmes that have not been eligible to be broadcast on analogue or digital radio.

The application deadline for the regionalised DAB+ multiplexes in North Rhine-Westphalia ended on 27.06.2024. According to Medienanstalt NRW, 53 applications were received from radio broadcasters. In addition, four platform providers have applied. Among them is Milling Broadcast Services, as RADIOSZENE has now exclusively learnt. Christian Milling told Radioszene they had not applied for the whole of NRW. "We restricted ourselves to area 1 (Cologne/Bonn/Aachen)," he said. "Our company is based in the distribution area, more precisely in the Eifel. And we can see in many places that even 13 years after the introduction of DAB+, rural regions are being neglected in terms of coverage. For local radio stations in particular, it is absolutely not expedient to only be receivable in the metropolises. We want to change that. We all know how important reliable terrestrial radio reception is, especially after the flood in the Ahr valley three years ago."

The Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel has decided to award the C11 DAB+ community network covering the whole of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. This is the last network that was not allocated in the 2019 global frequency plan. It was put out to tender again on 20 December 2023. During the procedure, five applications were submitted to the CSA, but only the applications from RTL Belgium SA for the "Radio Contact Max" project and Radio Maria Wallonie SPRL for the "Radio Maria" project were deemed compliant. After a period of in-depth examination of the two applications, the CSA College chose the Radio Contact Max project and awarded it the C11 Network.

Radio broadcasters are eagerly awaiting the announcement of the list of applicants for regionalised DAB+ multiplexes in North Rhine-Westphalia. Up to 16 million inhabitants could be reached after network expansion. On 2 July, Medienanstalt NRW announced that 53 applications had been received from radio broadcasters and four platform providers had applied. Audio Media Service (AMS) from Bielefeld, Media Broadcast from Cologne and UPLINK Network from Düsseldorf have confirmed their participation in the tender. Media Broadcast and UPLINK applied as platform operators for five regional networks, AMS for Ostwestfalen-Lippe.

Belgium's French-language radio landscape is about to welcome a new voice with the imminent launch of Radio Contact Max, an innovative station dedicated specifically to adult listeners aged 35 and over. The Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel (CSA) recently awarded RTL Belgium the C11 DAB+ Network, covering the whole of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, to establish Radio Contact Max. The station will stand out for its music programming specially designed for adults aged 35 and over, with new programmes and new personalities. RTL Belgium is thus consolidating its presence in the Belgian French-language radio landscape by extending the Radio Contact experience to DAB+.

Star FM Maximum Rock - Germany's successful rock radio network is continuing its expansion course and can now be received via DAB+ in four additional federal states. Star FM Maximum Rock is taking over the previous Femotion Radio programme slots in Lower Saxony, Bremen, Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein. Star FM Maximum Rock, which had previously been successful in Berlin, Brandenburg, Franconia and Saxony, had already expanded its technical reach by 18 million people in April with the launch via DAB+ in North Rhine-Westphalia. Star FM Maximum Rock is operated by Rockworld Digital GmbH, a joint venture between Star FM GmbH & Co. KG and Femotion GmbH, a subsidiary of Teutocast GmbH.

The Bavarian digital radio project ART (Announcement Radio Toolbox) has concluded its test broadcasts. Over the past 14 months, under the leadership of Bayerische Medien Technik (bmt) and together with the Bavarian Regulatory Authority for New Media (BLM), Mediaschool Bayern, Bayerische Lokal-Radioprogramme (BLR) and Bayern Digital Radio (BDR), the linking of different DAB radio programmes using DAB announcements has been tested. The project was funded by the Bavarian State Chancellery. The project says: "We would like to thank all listeners for their dedicated participation in the project evaluation and for all the great feedback on the programmes with their different musical colours, which were previously rarely represented on the radio."

Australian radio has grown its audience to 81% of the population and is the number one choice for in-car listening, according to Infinite Dial 2024 Australia released today by Commercial Radio & Audio (CRA) and Edison Research. The 8th annual report was presented at a webinar by Edison Research president Larry Rosin and CRA chief commercial officer Jo Dick. Mr Rosin said: “The Infinite Dial 2024 Australia study demonstrates the strong global position of the Australian audio industry, with robust engagement across different platforms, including traditional AM/FM/DAB+ radio, online radio, and podcasts. These findings underscore the industry's ability to adapt and innovate, providing diverse and compelling audio content for listeners.”

The Czech Telecommunications Office's (ČTÚ) rejection of the allocation of additional frequencies for terrestrial digital radio broadcasting DAB+ beyond the recent auction will not be so clear. The authority admits that additional local and community transmitters could be created in the future. "The Authority expects the construction and development of the national and regional broadcast networks in line with the development criteria set out in the allocations and a consequent increase in the number of DAB+ receivers among listeners. In the future, following an assessment of development, the Authority will look at the possibility of local and community transmitters as suggested in the public consultation," the CTU said in its May monitoring report.

The management of the ANTENNE BAYERN GROUP, one of the leading radio and audio companies in Germany, was expanded today. Guy Fränkel, already a successful Managing Director of ROCK ANTENNE, will join Felix Kovac as an additional Managing Director with responsibility for the strategic direction and further development of the station group. Michael Tenbusch, Chairman of the Shareholders' Meeting, emphasises the strategic importance of this personnel decision: "In Guy Fränkel, we are gaining a leader who not only knows the radio landscape inside out, but is also actively shaping the digital transformation of our industry. His appointment is a clear signal that the ANTENNE BAYERN GROUP wants to actively develop the radio and audio world in Bavaria and Germany."