Home Entertainment ANALYSIS: DIGITAL RADIO


‘We are proud that a small country like Norway is the fi rst country to go digital’


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February 2018 ertonline.co.uk


It’s necessary and important to plan for digitalisation of radio, to stay relevant for the listener. Norwegian radio would have stagnated on FM, as the platform had no room for expansion


Ole Jørgen Torvmark


We ask Ole Jørgen Torvmark, chief executive of Digital Radio Norway (DRN), how the country prepared for switchover and what it means now it’s happened


needed guidance. Guidance needs, especially in cars, have been bigger than we expected. We have met this with many action plans, such as DAB-aid for people on the road and campaigns in social media and on air.


Q: Did you face many objections and, if so, what were they? OT: Being the first country to digitise, we received many questions. One of them has been why Norwegian radio needs to go first in digitising. There are still people who believe that Norway is the only country to use DAB.


Q: How does it feel now that Norway has switched off FM and gone digital for national radio, and what implications does it have for the UK and other countries in Europe? Ole Jørgen Torvmark: We are proud that a small country like Norway is the first country to go digital. The switch has been made possible thanks to good cooperation within the radio industry, which has had a common need to modernise radio and expand the number of national radio channels. Norway finalising the national digital switchover might speed up digitisation in other countries. We see a clear interest in the job we did and in lessons learnt.


Q: What were the major challenges and issues you faced preparing Norway for digital switchover and how did you overcome them? OT: Doing a digital switch is a restructuring of radio habits and even though most listeners were digital before FM was switched off, we saw that people


Q: How have you worked with consumers and retailers to prepare them for switchover and to educate them on moving to digital radio? OT: Radio.no [https://radio.no] has been offering education and practical briefings for retailers for many years already, and has been visiting garages and been present in professional arenas for guidance. Also, the media authorities have been playing a major role in informing retailers about the shift.


The radio industry has been informing listeners


through TV, radio, social media and regular media. We have also been in touch with municipalities and local authorities to inform its inhabitants on coming changes.


Q: What were the main consumer listening and purchasing trends that you saw in the run-up to the move to digital and in different regions post-switchover?


OT: Most households have been ready to do the digital shift in each region. Eighty-six per cent of all households had a DAB radio when the last region switched off FM. The share was high even before the first switch-off. However, many people tend to wait until FM goes silent before doing the DAB upgrade in cars. The Norwegian broadcasters have taken into account a drop in listeners throughout the DSO- year and are giving listeners enough time to adjust to digital radio habits. Total radio listening had a decline of six to


seven per cent in 2017 and, looking at the different radio stations, we see that commercial radio has had little or almost no loss of listeners. The public service broadcaster, NRK, has seen a


larger decline, but this has also been an expected development, and something we all planned for. We expect listening to rise back to normal levels in 2018, when the last listeners have gone digital.


Q: What would your message be to countries like the UK when it comes to digital switchover? OT: It’s necessary and important


to plan for


digitalisation of radio, to stay relevant for the listener. Norwegian radio would have stagnated on FM, as the platform had no room for expansion. Now, we see an increase in listening for all the new channels that have gone national on DAB. This tells us we have met the listeners’ needs and gives us hope to see stable radio listening figures. Good cooperation and a solid long-term-plan are needed in doing so.


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