Norway will refuse FM broadcasting until 2017

    Norwegian Minister of Culture Torhild Vidway announced that by 2017 the country will fully switch to digital broadcasting, abandoning analogue FM broadcasting. Thus, Norway will be the first country in the world to make such a transition. Since the coverage of Digital DAB Radio (Digital Audio Broadcasting) in the country now exceeds the coverage of analog FM stations, it is expected that the change in the broadcast standard will be quick and painless.

    Norway began the transition to digital broadcasting in 1995. From the point of view of statistics, the situation with subscribers and their equipment is as follows:
    • 56% of Norwegians listen to digital radio only
    • 44% of Norwegians listen only to FM radio
    • 20% of cars are equipped with a digital DAB radio
    • 55% of Norwegian households have at least one digital DAB radio

    The transition to a new broadcast standard has already been agreed with the Norwegian radio stations. Some of them will turn off FM broadcasting at the same time, others will continue mixed broadcasting for some more time.

    In Europe, a number of countries have also voicedplans similar to Norway. Thus, the German company ARD announced its readiness to switch to the digital broadcasting standard DAB +, and a roadmap for a similar transition was developed in Sweden. However, Stockholm's plans in this regard take a longer time - the disabling of FM broadcasts should occur in 2024. In general, in the UK, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany, digital broadcasting networks have already covered more than 90% of the territory. At the hands of subscribers there are approximately 30 million DAB / DAB + standard digital radios, while the growth in sales of such devices has doubled over the past few years.

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