Digital HD Radio for Bangladesh

First two HD Radio stations in South Asia on air soon

Two HD Radio stations will be start broadcasting in early 2016 for Betar, the national government broadcaster for Bangladesh. The HD Radio broadcasts on mediumwave, supported by two GatesAir Flexiva 10kW transmitters, will cover the capital city of Dhaka and surrounding regions. Thus Bangladesh is not following neighboring India which have adapted DRM30/DRM+ for digital terrestrial radio.

New York to Replace Pay Phones With Superfast Free Wi-Fi

On-line radio and television consumption will be free and more accessible
New York City will begin this month replacing thousands of pay phones with free Wi-Fi hot spots. The city expects to have 500 hot spots installed by July, and eventually about 7,500 units will be replaced. The project, called LinkNYC, is being run by the company CityBridge, which is investing more than $200 million. CityBridge says its Wi-Fi will deliver broadband speeds of 1,000 megabits a second, about 100 times typical speeds provided by wireless carriers. 

DAB Scandal in Norway: License Fees Fund Guarantee for Private Radio

Government forced to release secret deal. Will the new minister of culture reconsider the FM closure plan?

The former CEO of the public service broadcaster NRK, Hans Tore Bjerkaas, has put his signature on a secret deal between the DAB promotion company Digitalradio Norge and the broadcast provider Norkring. The deal worth 63 million NEK is safeguarding the Swedish broadcaster MTG participation for DAB+ distribution for its network P4 Radio Hele Norge. This means that license fee funding has been used in order to prop up a private foreign owned company.

Spotify Takes Command of In-Car Music Listening

New Tesla deal might put broadcast radio in the shadow

Tesla's Model S electric car series will now ship with Spotify Premium integration, replacing former music partner Rdio, in Europe, Australia and Hong Kong. Current Model S owners will also benefit from the feature thanks to an over-the-air software upgrade, according to The Telegraph. 

Broadcast Provider Signs Long Time FM Contract with Swedish Public Radio

Agreement indicates weak prospects for a future transition to DAB 

Teracom AB has been following a public procurement with an agreement to deliver a nationwide terrestrial network for FM and RDS to Swedish Radio (SR) which launched the tender in April 2015. The basic requirements from SR is a population coverage of at least 99.8% and tightening requirements for reliability and robustness.

European Community Media Gets New President

Platform with Third Media Sector expertise in 16 countries strengthened

At its General Assembly in Madrid Community Media Forum Europe (CMFE) the Board of Directors got three new members. Judith Purkarthofer (Austria) takes over as President after Ciáran Murray (Ireland) . Vice presidents are Larry Fergeson (Cyprus) and Gabriella Velics (Hungary). Treasurer is Helmut Peissl (Austria). Together with former board members new in the Experts Group is Lina Chawaf MD of the Syrian expat radio station Radio Rozana in Paris.