If you like listening to the radio, it’s high time to upgrade to DAB+. This digital standard, which will be widely deployed in France in 2024, offers sound of much better quality than the venerable FM. No reason to deprive yourself of it!
Even if it suffers more and more from competition from the Internet, and in particular from social networks, radio remains a very popular medium. According to Médiamétrie, it still attracts nearly 40 million listeners every day in France, all stations combined. Whether at home or even more so in the car, many of us “turn on the set” in the morning to get fresh information or during the day to follow a program or simply listen to music. And it must be recognized that radio has several advantages. Not only is it free, but, what’s more, it doesn’t take up all of our attention: unlike screens, we can enjoy it while doing something else (cooking, cleaning, etc.) or even while working!
However, despite its qualities, radio has not received the same treatment as images, which play an increasingly important role in our society. And while television has long since gone digital with DTT and streaming, it is still analgesic that dominates the airwaves, with FM (or frequency modulation), still widely used in France.
But this era is now over with the deployment of DAB+ (for Digital Audio Broadcasting in English, or digital audio broadcasting in French). Behind this acronym is simply an international digital terrestrial radio standard, used for several years in Europe, particularly in the United Kingdom and Germany, a standard which is becoming widespread slowly, late and discreetly in France. Its main assets? First, better quality sound than FM, thanks to AAC encoding (a format similar to MP3) which eliminates hiss and noise. Then, the possibility of transmitting a lot of non-sound information, such as the title of a song, the name of an artist, or the cover of a record. Finally, like FM and other terrestrial technologies, DAB+ is completely free: there is no need to pay any subscription or even use the Internet or a mobile telephone network to receive digital radio!
And the good news is that after confidential beginnings, this technology will really become widespread in France in 2024, as highlighted by Arcom (the Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication) last February. by publishing a deployment map. Indeed, many transmitters will switch to DAB+ this year to cover more and more regions in France. Many popular national stations, public (France Inter, France Info, FIP, France Bleu, etc.) and private (RTL, Europe 1, NRJ, Rires et Chansons, BFM, etc.) are already available in DAB+ in certain areas. Just go to the website DABplus to see the list of stations you receive in your city.
Be careful, however: if DAB+ is indeed free, you have to invest in new radio receivers to benefit from it because FM models are not compatible with this digital standard – it was exactly the same thing for televisions when DAB+ arrived. TNT. No worries in the car: since 2020, all new vehicles have been equipped as standard with a DAB+ compatible car radio as stipulated by a European regulation. For older models, you can find complete car radios, with DAB+ and USB, for less than 50 euros on online stores like Amazon. In the same way, like traditional radios, there are today many models of autonomous portable receivers and DAB+ compatible hi-fi tuners at very reasonable prices, with starting prices around 30 euros. No reason therefore to deprive ourselves of this technology which will very soon supplant the venerable FM on the airwaves and in our homes.