February 2018
ertonline.co.uk
I
n a small cabin, on top of a mountain in North Norway, overlooking the city of Tromsø, above the Arctic Circle, history was made – and ERT was there to see it happen. Last December, Norway became the first country in the world to turn off analogue (FM) radio and make the switch to digital. ERT was invited to Northern Norway by British radio brand Pure for the final phase of the switchover, which took place at Fløya, and we were joined by two representatives from Pure – senior sales director Andy Graham and senior communications manager Sophie Spooner. The UK contingent’s visit was reported by the local press in Tromsø. On Wednesday, December 13, at 11:11am (10:11 GMT), after a phased, region-by-region transition that began in January of last year, Norway’s nationwide radio channels stopped broadcasting on FM in the country’s northernmost counties Troms, Finnmark and Svalbard. The transition affects only national radio channels. Most local stations will continue to broadcast in FM. Said Ole Jørgen Torvmark, chief executive of Digital Radio Norway (DRN): “Norwegian radio has made a historic shift from analogue to digital radio in 2017. The transition to digital radio among listeners has happened through several years and will continue even after today’s switch-off. We expect people to upgrade to digital radio even after it.
“It’s a big change and we have to give listeners time to adapt to digital radio. After each shutdown (in a region),
we noticed that the audience first dropped, but then rose again,” he added. Norway currently has 31 national radio channels on
DAB, compared with the five national channels previously on FM. The new national channels, transmitting only on DAB, gained more listeners in 2017. New channels now account for about one third of total listening. Every day, 1.4 million Norwegians listen to channels that had not existed without the digital radio shift.
Eighty-six per cent of all radio listeners in Norway are on digital, according to a survey carried out by Kantar Media, in December 2017. Norwegians have acquired 620,000 DAB radios in the past two-and-a-half months – since mid-September.
Commenting on Norway’s digital switchover, Ford Ennals, chief executive of Digital Radio UK, said: “We congratulate the Norwegian broadcasters and Digital Radio Norway on completing the transition to digital radio and becoming the first country in the world to switch-off FM transmissions for major stations. “Digital radio continues to make great progress in
the UK and, with digital listening now at 48.8 per cent, we are looking forward to the majority of all radio listening being via a digital platform in the new year. There are many lessons that we can learn from the Norway experience, particularly in relation to making sure there are the right products and resources to help listeners upgrade to digital radio in their car.”
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