Advanced Television

Germany: National DAB+ platform launches

July 10, 2020

With the allocation of channels reserved for third party broadcasters on the national platform for commercial stations almost complete, radio listeners throughout Germany can look forward to a significant increase in the number of digital radio stations they can pick up on DAB+.

Platform provider Antenne Deutschland, which will itself run six stations, and National German Radio are currently talking to broadcasters in order to fill the last two of the 16 channels.

Alongside Antenne Deutschland’s six radio stations, the following eight stations will go on the air together with the new platform in October 2020:

  • ANTENNE BAYERN
  • Drivers Classic by WIM
  • A second programme format by the ENERGY group in Germany*
  • JOKE FM
  • PROFI Radio
  • RTL
  • ROCK ANTENNE
  • TOGGO Radio

“The resulting range of stations already provides an excellent blend of established brands and new players. They combine attractive content with solid economic backing. National radio in Germany was long overdue and is now a reality. Nearly four decades after the start of commercial radio, there are now radio companies, national radio brands, and a powerful, market-driven audio marketer in Germany, too,” declared Erwin Linnenbach, CEO of National German Radio.

In February 2020, National German Radio GmbH was exclusively appointed by Antenne Deutschland to allocate the free transmission capacities on the first and only national commercial DAB+ platform, the ‘2nd DAB+ Bundesmux’. The international call for expressions of interest began in March and is now nearing completion.

Even in the first phase of Antenne Deutschland’s national DAB+ platform, about 67 million people will be able to listen to the new array of 16 stations by the end of 2020.

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