Switzerland - - 14-10-2008

The Swiss public broadcaster, SRG SSR idée 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 RTÉ 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 (RTÉ Playback) due on air later this summer.

Hungary - - 17-07-2008

An official tender began in March 2008 for a national DAB multiplex in the VHF Band.  The winner will most likely be announced in summer 2008 and services are expected to launch at the end of the year. 

Australia - - 02-06-2008

The Australian government has passed legislation for a digital radio policy and has recently announced that it will extend the period by which services should be on-air from January to July 2009.  Commercial services will be licensed on a market basis (with 109 licence areas across the continent). The commercial broadcasters have announced that they will use the DAB+ standard for digital radio in Australia.  The public broadcasters will be licensed for national coverage.  The Australian commercial radio industry plans to invest $400 million over the coming years to roll out digital radio across the country. Digital broadcasts will initially be limited to the five mainland capital cities - Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.  The first DAB+ test was launched in July 2007.  In recent months PURE Digital has established Australasian operations and announced three DAB+ upgradeable receivers.  In December 2007 the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) called for expression of interest in digital multiplex licenses. 

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. 

Brunei Darussalam - - 01-04-2008

Radio Television Brunei (RTB) is the public broadcaster.  In 2000 RTB began a DAB trial, which has been ongoing and includes simulcast services.  A task force has been set up within RTB, which is working closely with AITI.  RTB has also joined the ABU DAB+ task force to follow the industrial developments.

United Kingdom - - 14-03-2008

The latest audience results confirm DAB as by far the most popular digital radio platform in the UK.  On a like-for-like comparison, DAB achieved 12 times more radio listening than either Internet Radio or radio over Digital television.  During December consumers bought 25,000 DAB digital radios a day, and a major London department store sold more DAB radios per minute than iPods.   Ofcom, the government regulator, has also recently announced the award of the second DAB national radio multiplex to the 4 Digital Group Limited.  This multiplex license will allow the 4 Digital Group to broadcast radio and multimedia services. There are also plans to provide a selection of pod casts using DAB+.  Slideshow trials are currently on going in the London area. 

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.