Tag: Digital radio Dab

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IRELAND: RTÉ shuts down DAB but channels continue on digital

RTÉ shuts down DAB but channels continue on digital
Like public radio stations in other countries, RTÉ has allocated a specific portion of the FM band to the main channels. Radio 1 can be heard between 88 and 90 MHz; 2fm between 90 and 92; lyric FM (classical music channel) between 96 and 99 and Raidió na Gaeltachta (in Gaelic) between 93 and 95.
Source

As we anticipated in 2019 (news here), Ireland’s public broadcaster (Raidió Teilifís Éireann or RTÉ) will switch off the DAB channels on 31 March 2021, but will not close the RTÉ Gold, RTÉ 2XM, RTÉ Radio 1 Extra, RTÉ Pulse and RTÉjr Radio channels, which it will make available on other digital platforms. The decision was taken for three reasons: to reduce costs, the small number of listeners in the DAB band and the fact that RTÉ is the only Irish broadcaster in the digital band. The majority of Irish people (77%) listen to FM radio, compared to 0.5% for DAB. This is according to the latest radio listening survey (JNLR, Radio in a Digital World), conducted by market research institute Ipsos MRBI.

More details here.

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ITALY: To promote DAB, FM radio reception is being removed from mobile phones

to promote dab, remove FM radio from mobile phone
The magazine Newsline reported about the message displayed by Samsung smartphone to their owners before downloading the new update that would have disabled the FM radio reception
Source

A boomerang effect has been caused by the government decree that, in order to promote the development of DAB radio, requires radio manufacturers to stop selling devices in 2021 if they were not equipped with a digital receiver. This includes smartphones equipped with an FM tuner. Samsung (which has almost 40% of the market) has circumvented the regulatory requirement by deactivating the FM receiver with a change to its operating system. Moreover, the legislation (which applies only in Italy) would have required manufacturers to fit a digital receiver and antenna only to devices sold in Italy.

While this may seem a necessary action for newly sold devices, it seems pretty strange that it is applied to devices that have been sold before the law came into effect.

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