Tech Stream

Digital radio delayed in Australia… again.

3 March 2009

The rollout of digital radio in Australia has been delayed until August. Retailers and the commercial radio industry will begin an education campaign for consumers in April, with transmission using the DAB+ format to begin from August 6th. The public broadcasters, ABC and SBS, are also involved. Digital radio broadcasting was due to begin in the five major cities this May, which was already an extension from the initial launch date of October 2008. Sixteen DAB+ transmitters arrived in Australia in December and many in the industry have been talking about and testing systems and formats for almost ten years.

The DAB+ format is being used in Singapore, Malaysia and parts of China and provides more multimedia capacity than the older DAB format which has been used for many years in countries like the UK. It will be interesting to see how people in Australia respond to the new system, and what options they will have in terms of digital radio options for their homes, cars and mobile devices.