The European Broadcasting Union has formed the Strategic Program on Digital Radio Platforms. The group’s chair Javier Sánchez Perez announced a technical recommendation at the Digital Radio Summit in Geneva.
Recommendation R 138 is the first EBU member first agreement about digital radio distribution, and it was recently approved by the EBU Technical Committee. The recommendation takes future expansion into consideration and is aligned with the EBU’s Euro-Chip campaign, which advocates for devices to receive and switch between both analog and digital radio.
Additionally, the committee recommends immediate deployment using DAB+, and where this coverage isn’t possible, the Digital Radio Mondiale system should be substituted. Text, images and program guides should accompany digitization, and hybrid services taking advantage of additional internet-delivered content should be deployed, for example using the RadioDNS system.
The Strategic Program on Digital Radio Platforms also said the rollout could likely be sped up if analog switch-off date could be coordinated throughout Europe.
Sánchez Perez stressed that “terrestrial broadcast delivery is the only free-to-air and cost-effective method for truly mobile reception, particularly in cars.”
