A major step forward was taken today when the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) announced a unified European standard for digital radio receivers.

The announcement, which has the backing of Europe’s major broadcasters and manufacturers, effectively creates a single digital radio market across the entire continent. So a radio purchased in France will work just as well in the UK despite each country adopting different methods of digital broadcasting.

It puts to rest all the talk of various countries going for various digital systems from DAB to DAB+ or DMB as they all have one thing in common; they’re based on the Eureka 147 family of standards.

The EBU unified standard will be known as Digital Radio Receiver Profiles with three profiles in all. The first is Standard Radio Receiver, followed by Rich Media Radio Receiver which will make the most of full colour screens on household radios with advanced text/pictures and the final third profile is Multimedia Receiver for advanced forms of multimedia.

This is a huge step forward allowing broadcasters and manufacturers to work to scale bringing obvious benefits to radio listeners and the industry. With the backing of the mighty EBU it is also another hugely positive message that the future of radio is digital.

Full release is here on the EBU website.