News

Double J turned 10 on 30 April 2024 with an all-day party. They’ve now announced that they are slowly increasing their station reach beyond the metro areas with a DAB+ launch to the Gold Coast. From 9am on Wednesday morning Double J and Dylan Lewis will celebrate the launch with a nod to the Big Day Out, which was held in QLD on the Gold Coast for 18 years, including live performances from New Order, System Of A Down, tales from the event and more.

Urban Media Group is proud to announce that its Urban Africa Radio has been selected to launch the Digital Terrestrial Radio (DTR) pilot project in Senegal. This innovative project, led by the Autorité de Régulation des Télécoms et Postes (ARTP), aims to explore alternatives to traditional FM broadcasting and to better meet the growing demand for frequencies. Urban Africa Radio is a general-interest radio station that stands out for its rich and diverse programming. It offers a wide range of content, including music, news, cultural programmes and debates. The station is aimed at a wide and dynamic audience, with a particular focus on young Senegalese. Urban Africa Radio is convinced that DAB+ is the future of broadcasting and is committed to playing a major role in its development in Senegal.

The Autorité de Régulation des Télécommunications et des Postes (ARTP) in Senegal organised a workshop on Wednesday 08 May 2024 to launch the Digital Terrestrial Radio (RNT) pilot project, designed to counter the shortage of FM frequencies in Senegal. The workshop held on Wednesday provided an opportunity to present the RNT pilot project in detail, as well as the challenges and prospects for the service in the country. Participants had the opportunity to understand the implications of this transition to digital radio, particularly in terms of broadcast quality, content diversity and frequency availability. Today, RNT DAB+ in Senegal enables 16 radios to be grouped together in a single multiplexer instead of each radio having its own frequency. As part of this initial pilot phase in collaboration with Télédiffusion du Sénégal (TDS-SA), two multiplexers were put into service, with a total of thirty-two radio stations on board.

As part of the development of broadcasting services in Senegal and following the adoption of DAB/DAB+ standards by the international community, the ARTP organised a workshop on Wednesday 8 May 2024 to present the Digital Radio pilot project carried out in the country. Abdou Karim Sall, Director General, ARTP: "As part of this pilot phase, we have commissioned two multiplexers, so a total of 32 on-board radio stations. It makes Senegal the first French-speaking African country south of the Sahara to make digital radio available to operators. Senegal is always a pioneer in projects whether it's 5G, 4G or DTT, so Senegal can't be left behind when it comes to in terms of innovation, which is why today we have this desire to provide Senegal with this technology possibility of having terrestrial digital radio and it's a pleasure for Senegal and for the Senegalese."

As part of the development of broadcasting services in Senegal, and following the adoption of DAB+ standards by the international community, the Autorité de Régulation des Télécommunications et des Postes (ARTP), in collaboration with Télédiffusion du Sénégal (TDS), organised a workshop on Wednesday to present the Digital Terrestrial Radio (DTR) pilot project in Senegal. Nafissatou Diouf, outgoing Director General of TDS, said that ‘this project is quite simply an advance in technology. It's also a real revolution in the way we're going to have to disseminate information once again’. The other advantage, she said, is ‘superior sound quality. After the launch of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT), Digital Terrestrial Radio (DTR) completes the full switchover process.

Two key speakers will be at this year's Innovation Day conference on 21 May to talk about the development of DAB+ digital radio broadcasting in the Czech Republic. Traditionally, Czech Radio will be represented by its technical director Karel Zýka, while Marcel Procházka, Director of Legal and Regulatory Affairs, will represent Czech Radio. Zýka's lecture, which is scheduled for around noon, is expected to bring plans for further development of Czech Radio's DAB+ multiplex. The public broadcaster currently covers around 96% of the population on so-called outdoor reception, i.e. outside buildings, and has been the natural leader of the process for a number of years, with commercial radios gradually starting to join in this year.

On 8 May 2024, the DGTEL of the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy (MIMIT) published on the Ministry's website the list of expressions of interest received by the Ministry of consortium companies admitted to the procedures for the assignment of rights of use of frequencies for the terrestrial digital radio broadcasting service, as per the PNAF-DAB for the following catchment areas: no. 01 - Piedmont; no. 12 - Lazio and no. 15 - Campania.

As part of the development of broadcasting services in Senegal and in line with the adoption of DAB/DAB+ standards by the international community, the Autorité de Régulation des Télécoms et Postes (ARTP) organised a workshop on Wednesday 8 May 2024 to present the digital radio pilot project carried out in the country. The event was held at a hotel in Dakar. Faced with the scarcity, or even shortage, of frequencies in the FM band, particularly in certain areas of the country, the ARTP has taken the initiative of launching a DAB+ Digital Terrestrial Radio pilot project. The aim is to explore alternatives to FM broadcasting in order to better meet radio operators' demand for frequencies.

The Licensing and Control Board has examined the compliance of the applications it received in response to the call for tenders for the Community DAB+ network (C11). While five applications had been submitted and had all been deemed admissible, three applications were declared non-compliant on the basis of these new tests. Only the applications from RTL Belgium SA for the ‘Radio Contact Max’ project and from Radio Maria Wallonie SPRL for the ‘Radio Maria’ project met all the criteria for compliance. The final decision on the award of this licence is expected in June 2024.

50% of the Austrian population aged 15 and over are familiar with the term DAB+ digital radio, its logo or even both. 26% of all households in Austria state that they have at least one DAB+-capable receiver and almost a quarter of the population has already listened to radio programmes via DAB+ digital terrestrial radio. Five years after the nationwide launch, 18% of the total population or 960,000 Austrians use DAB+ radio (almost) daily, several times a week or at least several times a month. These are the key findings of the study ‘DAB+ Digital Radio Austria 2024’ presented by RTR Medien on 11 April. After an introduction by RTR Media Managing Director Wolfgang Struber, Ipsos market researcher Roswitha Wachtler presented the latest findings on the premises of RTR.