World's Fastest Mobile Network Marginalize DAB Radio

Increased space for radio and television in mobile networks in Norway.
According to statistics from Ookla, Norway has now the world's fastest mobile network. After hard competition between operators Norway has gone from 11th place to first place in one year. The average data rate on mobile has increased by 69% and now stands at 52.6 megabits per second. - Telenor, Telia and Ice.net have recently invested billions in the development of their 4G/LTE networks reaching all Norwegians. Moreover, the geographical coverage is better than for terrestrial radio as DAB+.

Next Month DAB Radio in Hong Kong is All Gone

A digital terrestrial radio project became a seven year fiasco.
Public broadcaster RTHK will formally pull the plug on final digital radio services on September 3. Its analogue FM radio service will remain. The Commerce and Economic Development Bureau said in a press release However, the retreat of the three commercial DAB operators in a short period of time due to difficulties in their operation and the lack of a critical mass of audience demonstrated the exhaustion of interest in the services.

Medium Waves Returning to Denmark

Analogue radio is still the backbone for terrestrial broadcasting.
Three new AM radio stations are due to launch in Copenhagen on medium wave within the next couple of months. No on air date has been decided yet. The stations NB24, World Music Radio and Radio 208 will be broadcasting on 846 kHz (300 W), 927 kHz (300 W) and 1440 kHz (power not yet confirmed). Two of the stations will be music based and the third station will be all talk according to Stig Hartvig Nielsen. - - The digital radio switch to DAB+ will make a lot of incompatible DAB receivers obolete. Some listeners might shift to their old receivers with AM and FM rather than upgrade to DAB+

Two Out of Three Norwegians Are Dissatisfied With DAB Radio

"3 out of 5 slaughter DAB"

Popular resistance to FM closure bids for upcoming political problems.  
As the first and still only country in the world Norway is trying to replace FM radio with DAB+ by forcing the listeners over to this technology. This might end up as an embarrasing mistake by the politicians.
According to a survey commissioned by the newspaper Dagbladet, as many as 60 percent of the radio listeners are not satisfied with the transition to DAB. 16 percent said they do not know what they like about the transition, while 24 percent are satisfied. Dissatisfaction is widely distributed across the country. Also in areas where public broadcaster NRK has not yet closed the FM transmitters.

Spotify Now With 60 million Subscribers Worldwide

Apple is outpaced. Broadcasters should beware of a changing music consumer pattern.
The Swedish company Spotify has added 20 million paid subscribers in less than a year, while it’s taken Apple Music more than a year and a half to make that progress. Spotify now has 60 million subscribers, compared to Apple Music’s 27 million. Together with the ad-supporter free service the total listening base for Spotify worldwide now is 140 million.

Kids are still listening to the radio.

But radio’s future is multiplatform. Smartphones and tablets on top.
The latest British study published by RAJAR in addition to the quarterly radio figures, is the Junior Audio Measurement Joint Audience Research(JAMJAR).  74% of British kids 9-14 yrs listen to radio every week. But 60% listen to the “radio through radio” (AM and FM), as the research quaintly puts it, for a average of 10.7 hours a week.

DAB Transition in Norway Heading For a Flop

"We will switch-off DAB"

Radio Norway loses half of its listeners. But all three nationwide losers. Continued DAB resistance. Many switch to local radio on FM.
The major radio channels is losing thousands of listeners when the FM network is step by step switched off. Nevertheless, the FM switch-off still remains in popular Oslo and Akershus County. For the country's major channel public service NRK P1, daily coverage fell by eight percent - from 1,517,000 in week 24 last year to 1,394,000 in the same week this year. The listeners leaving the NRK main channel have probably switched to FM local radio and on-line.

FM Band Boost in Sweden. 170 Additional Frequencies for Commercial Radio

Successful frequency planning prior to licensing period 2018-2026.
The Post and Telecom Agency (PTS) has presented a new frequency plan for the FM band for commercial radio in Sweden. This will provide more frequency radio resources and creates new opportunities for national, regional and local commercial broadcast areas. Current FM radio broadcast licenses will expire on July 31, 2018 and new eight-year licenses will be announced. Prior to this, PTS has been commissioned by the government to develop a new analogue commercial radio frequency plan which now will include 380 frequencies on the FM band besides frequencies assigned for public and community radio.

368 New FM Broadcast Licenses Issued in Denmark

Radio Vesterbro. Copenhagen

FM retained in a new local radio landscape for another 10 years.
The radio and television committee has now allocated 368 new broadcasting licenses on the FM band for commercial and non-commercial local radio (community radio). The licenses will be running from 1 January 2018 until 31 December 2027. This indicates that an FM switch-off will probably not be on the agenda in Denmark for a long time, if ever.

Serious Setback for DAB Radio

Multiplex to close as FM prospers in Ireland
A multi-city DAB digital radio multiplex is closing after lack of interest from the independent radio sector. The multiplex by dB currently carries services by public broadcaster RTÉ and a number of niche stations – namely Maria, Sunshine, Ri-Ra and RTÉ lyric. Previously, the mux has offered All 80s, All 90s, Zenith, Pure Classic, Love Radio, Amazing Radio and UCB.

Indonesia Testing Digital Radio in Crowded FM Band

Successful Singapore Straits Demonstration of DRM+
In cooperation with Digital Radio Mondiale the public broadcaster RRI has tested DRM+ in

Indonesian island of Batam close to Singapore. The DRM signal was inserted into the existing and very crowded FM local spectrum in the Strait area. The existing FM was at

105.1 MHz and DRM was placed at 105.25Mhz. The current analogue transmitter had a power of 5kW in analogue. 2.5kW was used for simulcast mode (FM and DRM) and only 0.2KW DRM power was utilised. Excellent coverage area was achieved with only 10% of analogue power.

Brazil Testing Long Distance Digital Radio

Reaching out with public service broadcasting to Amazonas
The last two months experimental DRM transmissions were resumed by Brazilian public broadcaster EBC from the Rodeador Park, where the Rádio Nacional transmission facility is located. Despite the low power (130 W) used the DRM30 HF signal being audible in quality in the Sao Paolo State at about 800 km away from the transmission site in Brasilia. The audio of the Amazon National Radio was received there in excellent digital quality.