China - - 10-06-2009

The Chinese regulator, SARFT, announced in May 2006 that DAB was chosen as an industrial standard, to date DAB is the only European digital broadcasting standard approved for commercial use in China. DAB and DMB are on-air in cities and regions across the country including: Beijing, Guangdong, Hennan, Dalian, Yunnan, Liaoning, Hunan, Zhejiang, Anhui and Shenzhen. Chinese DMB manufacturers include: Lenovo Mobile, Aigo, Longcheer, BBEF and SIM. DMB PMP receivers are already available in Beijing for around RMB499 (50 Euro) to RMB2500 (250 Euro). To date over 250,000 such devices have been sold in Beijing alone. Beijing Jolon and GTM have been the key industrial drivers for the quick roll out of DAB/DMB in China. During the Olympics there were five DMB mobile TV channels on-air along side 16 DAB digital radio channels. The Olympics were a fantastic platform to showcase DMB and DAB. Beijing Jolon, the public broadcaster in Beijing, is continuing to offer four mobile TV channels, 17 audio services, 5 video services and 3 data services. They are also currently working on the implementation of new applications called ‘Pushing Radio Services’, which will roll out in 2009.

Ireland - - 10-06-2009

A DAB trial began in Ireland in March 2007 with 11 stations, six existing national stations and five Dublin stations. This trial covered Greater Dublin and the North East area with coverage of approximately 36% of Ireland’s population. Recently a DAB trial was rolled out to Limerick and Cork, increasing the DAB coverage to almost of half of the Irish population. This development was led by RTE in co-operation with digitalRadio.ie a new industry group set up to explore the development and promotion of digital radio in Ireland. There are now 18 station on-air including six new digital only Irish stations, with a further two stations launched in the Autumn of 2008. The market is currently waiting for the government to provide further regulation to move forward.

Germany - - 27-03-2009

The DAB in Germany covers nearly 85% of the country with over 120 radio stations available. In 2009/2010 a Digital Radio re-launch is intended. These includes the first nationwide multiplex within Germany. The 16 German regional governments have agreed to start the roll out of nationwide digital radio services, using DAB+, at the beginning of 2010.
The programms will be broadcasted in the DAB+ standard. The plan is that the public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk and commercial broadcasters will share the capacity.

Denmark - - 08-01-2009

Every 4th Dane has a DAB radio!

In research recently carried out on DAB it was shown that there are currently 1.3 million Danes who are already part of the digital radio development. Nearly 1 million Danes, who do not own a DAB radio say they will buy one within the next year. Also, 55% of Danes felt that an important reason for buying a new digital radio was the increased choice of channels available. Denmark has 18 DAB channels (13 of these are DAB only). The Danes also want DAB in their cars - 24% are willing to pay it as an in-car additional option.

24% of the Danes have a DAB radio - and DAB is popular in all age groups.
The marketing continues and public broadcaster DR has just aired a TV, radio and net campaign to support the DAB Digital Radio platform.

Switzerland - - 14-10-2008

The Swiss public broadcaster, SRG SSR idee suisse, officially launched it's fourth multiplex on October 13th in Grisons (the Eastern part of Switzerland) with 13 programmes on DAB+ , two of which are simulcast on DAB on the same multiplex. 27 new transmitters were set up to cover the Grisons area.

Switzerland has by now reached 90% national DAB coverage. The launch of the fourth multiplex brought the total number of DAB services on air to 35, and the number of DAB+ services to 13 (amounting to 19 different brands on 3 multiplexes).

Ireland - - 24-07-2008

In March 2008 RTE Radio, Ireland’s public service broadcaster, announced the extension of its trial of digital radio technology. It expanded the trial to the cities of Cork and Limerick, meaning that 44% of the population now have access to digital radio, provided they have a digital receiver. There are now 22 services on-air including ten new digital only Irish stations, with a further station (RTE Playback) due on air later this summer.

Netherlands - - 13-05-2008

On Tuesday 13 May 2008 the Dutch Government was given permission by the House of Representatives to auction two DAB licenses before Christmas 2008 in The Netherlands. The Allotments which will be awarded will be one nationwide coverage in Band III (1 multiplex) and one nationwide coverage in the L-band (117 multiplexes). The licenses are going to be put up for auction technology free (within the DAB spectrum mask), and the content criteria will be, 80% of the multiplex must be used for broadcast (Mobile TV, Visual Radio and radio).

In 2009 a further two DAB multiplexes will be awarded. These two multiplexes will both be in Band III and give twice the nationwide coverage. The use of these multiplexes will be 80% for radio broadcasting.

China - - 01-04-2008

The Chinese regulator, SARFT, announced in May 2006 that DAB was chosen for the industrial standard this means that to date DAB is the only European digital broadcasting standard that has been approved for commercial use in China.  DMB on air in five cities across the country including: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Dalian and Henan.  Guangzhou launched commercial services in 2007.  Chinese DMB manufacturers include:  Lenovo Mobile, Aigo, Longcheer, BBEF and SIM.  DMB PMP receivers are already available in Beijing for affordable prices around RMB2500 (250 Euro). To date over 80,000 such devices have already been sold in Beijing alone.  Beijing Jolon and GTM have been the key industrial driver for the quick roll out of DAB/DMB in China as it prepares for broadcasting the Olympic Games. In November 2006, ten digital audio programs and two mobile video programs were launched.  The services have since been increased to 16 DAB digital radio services and 6 DMB services using a free-to-air business model. 

Switzerland - - 14-03-2008

There is currently 85% national DAB coverage in Switzerland.  New transmitters are currently being put up all over the country almost every week.  Two new DAB channels were launched at the beginning of November 2007 bringing the number of DAB services on air to 33 (19 different brands on 3 multiplexes).  There is over an 80% listener awareness and DAB penetration has reached 20%, up from 12% at the same time last year.  The launch of the 1st commercial DAB+ multiplex is planned for late 2008 and will be run by SwissMediaCast AG. 

Sweden - - 14-03-2008

In addition to the 5 unique digital radio audio services there are also a few data services available which include: SR Plus, a BWS service which contains a condensed version of the SR web and SR EPG , a trial version for testing electronic programme guides and SR TPEG , which is a test service for future TPEG streams.   There have also recently been test broadcasts of eight Danish digital radio programmes across the Stockholm area.