DAB+ services launch in UK

By James Cridland for media.info
Posted 28 January 2016, 6.38pm est

Two new services have launched in the UK operating in DAB+ only.

DAB+, a newer version of DAB in use in Europe and Australia, needs less bitrate to achieve the same audio quality. It does this by using AAC to encode the audio instead of MP2. With DAB+, broadcasters can transmit lots more stations in decent audio quality.

The Portsmouth DAB small-scale multiplex trial has added two new services: Awaaz FM and a service called Indulgence which are both available in DAB+.

Indulgence is the first UK radio service to launch exclusively in DAB+.

An 'old' DAB radio will either simply not see these new services, or will offer the chance to upgrade your set to make it DAB+ compatible. This can be done for a nominal fee which covers licensing costs for AAC, charged by the inventors of the format, a German company called Fraunhofer. A licensing cost is also charged to the multiplex operator.

DAB+ will already be present in DAB radios that also have access to online radio (like the Pure Evoke Flow, which was probably the first DAB+ receiver available in the UK). If it has a Digital Radio tickmark somewhere on the box, it'll cope with DAB+ transmissions. And if your car had DAB pre-installed in it, like 80% of cars do these days, it'll already be capable of receiving DAB+. There are, though, many sets available in the UK which don't support DAB+.

I understand there will be more DAB+ services on the Portsmouth multiplex in the next few weeks.

The UK has been slow in adopting the DAB+ standard, partially for fear of communicating to consumers that they'll have to replace their old DAB radio sets. Since it isn't something that, by itself, helps the "50% of listening by digital" goal that the industry is aiming for, it's unlikely to be quickly used by existing broadcasters, even though it can offer better audio quality and can lower broadcaster transmission prices.

Denmark, Switzerland and Norway are among the countries that launched with the original DAB, and then switched over entirely to DAB+. Countries like Malta and Australia have never used MP2 DAB, and launched with DAB+. In Australia, 24% of the population in capital cities already use DAB+ once a week; in the UK, 39% use DAB.

The first service to broadcast on DAB+ in the UK was Folder Media's Fun Kids in Wrexham in September 2014, which was a short-term trial for four months.

A national DAB+ service is promised by the winners of the second commercial multiplex. I understand there may be more at launch.

Opinion: I'm delighted to see DAB+ being used in the UK, and am deeply critical of the industry's tardy support for it, which (it would seem to me) has just made it more difficult for the industry to switch over. The new broadcasting format offers many benefits to broadcasters and listeners alike. I look forward to more multiplexes using the technology; and for pressure put on retailers and manufacturers to stop selling DAB-only sets.