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| "The People's Crushing DAB Verdict" |
Local commercial station refusing FM switch-off
During the year, FM transmitters for national radio broadcasters have been closed district by district. Today, the last closed in Troms county in northern Norway. Now on the FM band you can only listen to local radio, cross-border radio from Sweden and pirate radio. Today, the Oslo daily Dagbladet published an opinion poll by Ipsos, which shows that 56 percent are dissatisfied with the transition to DAB. 31% are satisfied and 12% do not know. This is an insignificant change since Ipso's measurement last summer when 60% were dissatisfied and 24% satisfied.
Torgeir Waterhouse, Director of the Internet and the New Media Industry Organization, ICT-Norway, notes the relatively low proportion being pleased with the transition. He believes that the survey opens for a discussion whether it is consumers or broadcasting companies that should be listened to when making technical changes. For there is no doubt that the decision behind the transition is in favor of the broadcasters here, Waterhouse said to Dagbladet.
In one year, the government broadcaster NRK has lost 21 percent of its daily listeners, and in Nordland, Møre og Romsdal and Trøndelag counties every fourth listener has disappeared according to the daily Klassekampen.
The dissatisfaction with the DAB radio has proved to be vocal and widespread during this year. In newspapers and social media, the criticism is devastatingly negative. There are in general only negative articles and comments about DAB in the press all over the country. The biggest Facebook group against the forced introduction of DAB, which started a year ago, nw will count its 6,000th member.
As it now looks, the resistance to DAB still is not decreasing. In addition, many Norwegians are now upset by the authorities' threat of closing the local commercial Radio Metros FM transmitters in Oslo. The media authorities, Medietilsynet and Nkom, clearly state their intentions to protect the two media groups German Bauer and Swedish MTG, which operate Radio Norway and P4, from competition from local commercial FM broadcasting. The authorities plan to fine and close the Metro FM transmitters.
Read in Radionytt.no
Truer Metro with DAB fines of 110,000 kroner (in Norwegian)
Also read
DAB in Norway: Public Radio Losing One Fifth of Its Listeners
Norwegian Radio Market Faces Dramatic Changes. Local Radio Up on FM
Problems With Many DAB Radio Adaptors in Norway
Two Out of Three Norwegians Are Dissatisfied With DAB Radio
