Spain is making great progress on its DAB+ deployment, according to Javier Sánchez Pérez, director of audiovisual policy and public service at Radio Televisión Española or RTVE, the national Spanish public broadcaster.
He spoke at the WorldDAB Summit 2025 last week at DPG Media in Antwerp, Belgium. It was hosted by WorldDAB, the advocacy group for the DAB+ digital radio standard.
“In the past, many of you had serious doubts about DAB+ in Spain,” said Pérez. “But things are changing very fast.”
In July, Spain’s Ministry of Digital Transformation launched a public consultation for drafting a decree to boost DAB+ coverage in Spain. In October a draft decree was published, and a consultation process ran until Nov. 4.
At present, Radio Nacional de España is broadcasting in DAB+ in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Murcia and Bilbao. On DAB, Spain offers broadcasts of Radio Nacional, Radio Clásica, Radio 3, Radio 5 and Radio Exterior in Madrid and Barcelona.
Under the draft decree, the transition to DAB+ by Spain’s national broadcasters is mandatory and must be done together.
RTVE is being given an exclusive block of DAB+ frequencies, to help the public broadcaster increase its ability to offer content, boost coverage and reach 85% of the population within 24 months.
Spain’s private radio stations will be integrated into another block, and their current coverage requirements will stay the same.
Another key feature of the draft decree is a mandate for Automatic Safety Alerts (ASA) over radio. If approved, Spain will be the first European country to enforce this mandatory requirement.
“We are working very fast in order to go to the real deployment,” said Pérez. However, this decree “is not about switching off AM or FM.” Instead, it is aimed at migrating Spain’s digital radio stations from DAB to DAB+.
As well, this project is only the “first step” in digitizing Spanish radio, he told the WorldDAB audience. As such, “It will have a limited impact in the private sector in this first stage.”
Spain’s local and regional radio broadcasters will follow a two-phase transition to DAB+. “Nowadays they are not deployed on digital radio but if they want to deploy they will be able to deploy,” said Pérez.
According to WorldDAB.com, “In the first phase, any broadcaster may transition to DAB+ at any time and independently, provided that this does not affect other operators or channel planning. In the second phase, the autonomous community will decide on the date on which, on a mandatory and synchronized basis, regional and local network broadcasts in its community will be carried out exclusively using DAB+ technology.”
Pérez addressed broader digital migration goals in Spain, specifically regarding analog services.
“After 88 years, we are going to switch off medium-wave [AM],” he said. “We know that there are 27 countries that have switched off medium-wave in Europe, and Spain was one of these countries that still had medium-wave. But now we are going to switch off medium-wave because we are going to DAB+.”
Pérez concluded by cautioning that the entire project depends on the draft decree receiving final approval from the Spanish government. “The estimated full approval date is around autumn 2026,” he stated.
