Podcasts and smart speakers are fueling the online audio market.
Arbeitsgemeinschaft Media-Analyze e.V. (agma) this week published the latest data on the use of digital audio services in Germany. According to the ma 2018 IP Audio III measurments, the online audio market continues to grow dynamically. Each month, there are listening streaming sessions 280 million times, with an average session time of 48 minutes.
But online radio will expand on many devices
According to a report from die medienanstalten published this week FM continues to be the dominant listening platform in Germany. This year 92,2 percent of the households have at least one FM receiver compared with radio via cable/satellite 22,8%, DAB 17% and Internet 10,7%. There are approximately 135 million FM receivers in active use in Germany. Cable/satellite is losing its position to DAB and online radio.
Norwegians are going for DAB success in Oslo and Brussels
Being a small country and not an EU member it is notable how Norway is involved in European DAB-promoting in Brussels. And two Norwegians companies will put their hopes to the latest proposal (see separate story below) to the European Parliament which is the outcome of many years of aggressive lobbying. The most powerful resources regarding DAB comes from the EBU. For more than 8 years the EBU office in Brussels has an annual budget officially at 1-1,2 million euro.
However, consumer and eurolegal backlash is looming.
The European Electronics Communications Code (EECC) will include a new provision that any radio equipment integrated in a new car which is put on the market for sale or rent in the Union shall be capable of receiving digital terrestrial radio broadcasting. The political agreement on the EECC had been reached in June 2018 . This might be a step forward for the DAB system, but technical developments for mobile broadband might kill the whole setup.
Important step for broadcasting, but LTE 4G still sufficient for radio
Telecom equipment manufacturer Ericsson says the first smartphones supporting 5G will become available during early 2019. The June Ericsson Mobility Report makes three major other assertions: 1) 5G will kick off with enhanced mobile broadband as its first use case. 2) By the end of 2023, there will be 1 billion 5G subscriptions, accounting for around 20% of mobile data traffic. 3) A massive increase in 5G subscriptions is expected to be fueled by third-generation chipsets, which will be available from 2020 on a variety of frequency bands
Increasing political and business demands for a return to FM
For the first time daily listening to national radio is down under 50% in Norway. Last week down to 48,5% from 51,2% the week before according to Kantar TNS. Although the Norwegians now have an increased number of on-air channels to choose from there is a widespread discontent with DAB replacing FM. For several reasons DAB is far from becoming popular as projected by the public broadcaster NRK and other promoters.
