DRM+ Radio Station On Air in Germany on Regular Basis

Digital radio on the FM band
The student radio “bit express” in Erlangen in cooperation with Fraunhofer IIS is from December 11 is broadcasting their new transmitter on 87.9 MHz using DRM+. This frequency was assigned for test transmissions by the Bavarian regulatory authority BLM. With the set-up of the final hardware, “bit express” will be on air with DRM+ on a regular basis. For the first time the new enhanced codec
xHE-AAC is put into operation.

Read more: www.bitexpress.de   

Confusion on DAB Standards Continues in France

The French Ministry of Culture and Communication will shortly authorize the transmission standard DAB+. The government envisages that this will co-exist alongside the standard already authorized, T-DMB (DMB-R). This reveals that the government still considers digital radio to be a matter for experimentation, in that its decision "will enrich the period of experimentation in offering two technical paths for digital radio with their particular costs and modes of operation". 

German Youth Rejects Digital Radio

Youth radio listening; FM triumph, DAB flop

German youth are still listening to radio on a stationary radio or car radio and it is overwhelmingly via FM. According to the "JIM Report 2013" (Youth, Information, Multimedia) from Medienpädagogischen Research Association Südwest three quarters listen to an ordinary FM receiver and two thirds on a FM car radio. 
In spite of the broad offering of other means of listening as mobile phone, Internet, mp3-player and DAB+ youth are indifferent to those platforms. It is striking that the usage of DAB+ units has decreased from 3 to 2 percent in a year. (Satellifax)

Labour Warning Against a Hasty Switch to DAB Radio

Hasty switch could hit poor, warns British MP

Shadow culture minister Helen Goodman has warned the government against a hasty switch to digital radio, saying the leap from analogue to digital would hit the poorest households hardest. She said the government was putting the interests of big business ahead of ordinary listeners, who she said should not be expected to pay for new digital sets at a time when household budgets were already stretched.

No U.K. Switch-Over Date To Be Announced

Government 'won't be pushed' into digital radio switchover date

Ed Vaizey

Communications minister Ed Vaizey has indicated he will not announce a switchover date for digital radio next month after MPs from Tories and Labour warned that smaller stations "faced extinction" if the majority of broadcasters abandoned analogue in order to go exclusively on DAB.

Vaizey said he believed digital radio was the future, but said he would "not be pushed into a switchover date. We will not get ahead of listeners." He was speaking at a House of Commons debate on Thursday in which the government faced a backlash from MPs over the prospect of a premature switchover.

Mobile Broadband Future Basic Platform for Radio

Free wireless networks will add to 3G/4G platforms

As reported earlier according to the Ericsson mobility report 90 percent of the world population will be have 3G coverage 2019 and 65 percent will have 4G/LTE. The number of mobile subscriptions will be tenfold by 2019 increasing to 9,3 billion and of this 5,6 billion will be smartphones. Besides mobile broadband 3G/4G today one billion Internet users can connect to free wireless networks - wi-fi - all over the world. Many media services as radio and television will be easily accessible via apps for mobile/smartphone users. This will further kill the arguments for a new digital radio infrastructure replacing FM as DAB/DAB+.