DAB Worldwide
Worldwide, over 475 million people can now receive almost 1,000 different digital radio services. Commercial digital receivers have been on the market since summer 1998 and there are now hundreds of different receivers available in the €30 to €90 price range.
Digital radio has developed significantly over the past ten years across the main EU Member States. It is widely available in Germany, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Norway, Denmark and the United Kingdom.
The main drivers of digital radio in the coming two years will be Ireland, Australia, Germany and the United States. Australia have adopted the DAB+ system of digital broadcasting and launch in all major cities in 2009. Germany, which has excellent DAB coverage, will drive take-up with brand new digital only services next year. Meanwhile, American broadcasters have opted for a digital broadcast system called HD and new digital stations are being launched almost weekly.
Some countries have even begun asking about the eventual turn-off of FM. In Norway, the regulator is considering a turn off of FM sometime after 2014 and the UK regulator will consider the question in 2012.
The situation in Germany is not quite so clear as you say.
But you also forget Switzerland in your roundup who has DAB and DAB+ and the radios are selling faster than cookoo clocks!!! All Switzerland did was switch off one national AM station and that was all the good Swiss people needed to buy lots of digital radios.
Let me explain the situation in Germany. Our first DAB network in 1997 was a mistake. All the transmitters were too low power (1KW max) and so no one could receive in houses well. There was hardly any new program different from FM and guess what, no reason to buy digital radio. Not rocket science. Now we have all agreed to use DAB+ and for the first time the 16 states agreed to have a new national digital radio network using DAB+. ARD radios, the radio set manufacturers and the automotive industry all support this rebirth of digital radio and DAB+ and we had agreed to have transmitters up to 12kW for perfect in house receiving. A few private radios were pretending to be against DAB+ but they are also very busy worrying about the economic crisis.
The situation was just about to be better until Kommission zur Ermittlung des Finanzbedarfes (KEF)who controls all money for ARD public radio decided – to everyones surprise – not to pay money essential for DAB+ to the ARD. Even more they said all future radio might work better only on the internet!! Even a blind man can see this does not make good sense.
There are lots of clever people as members of KEF but one person who is a technical expert is the enemy of DAB and always has been against it. Perhaps this is because he is the senior man behind D … [Editor: Rest of paragraph removed for legal reasons].
If you think this smells of Hundescheiße, well my friends, we in Germany agree. I think you name this situation a “conflict of interests” and it would be ilegal in most countries but not in Germany.
Thanks for the update. We knew that even though the DAB transmission power was low, there was coverage of the major population centres.
Sad to hear there is a set-back with the KEF however I feel it will be temporary. Once they consider what is happening in the rest of Europe things will swing back. Probably should be expected after 10 years of low powered pointless simulcasts. Hearing you guys are planning Germanys first ever national network on DAB+ is a huge step. Best of luck with it when it happens – because it will!
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