OSLO�Last Thursday the Norwegian Ministry of Culture announced the upcoming “sunsetting” of the FM service across all of the country, according to radio.no.
The process will start in Nordland county on Jan. 11, 2017, and finishes with the northernmost counties Troms and Finnmark Dec. 13, 2017.
NRK, P4 Group and SBS Radio will shut down all of their FM broadcasts simultaneously in two of six regions. �In four regions however, NRK Radio will lead the way in FM shutdown.
Norway actually began the transition to digital radio in 1995. After 20 years, more than 90 percent of the population can now listen to the 22 national radio channels.� Let�s take a look at some of the salient facts about Norway, derived from TNS/Gallup research:
- 56 percent of radio listeners use digital radio daily
- 44 percent of listeners only use FM radio daily
- 20 percent of private cars are equipped with DAB radio
- 55 percent of all Norwegian households have at least one DAB radio
- 7.9 million radio sets will be affected by FM-extinction
Regarding actual coverage:
- Norwegian public broadcaster NRK: at least 99.5 percent coverage on DAB+
- �Commercial radio: 92.8 percent coverage on DAB+
- �Community radio: 50 percent DAB coverage on DAB+
