The first country in the world to do so, Norway started to switch off its nationwide FM network on January 1st 2017. To replace the analogue transmitters a nationwide DAB+ network has been created. The switchover has been conducted region by region and the first one to launch was Nordland in the very north of Norway.
Being one of the first countries in Europe to use PPM (Portable People Meter), we know exactly what happened to the audience. Looking at the total number of listeners the answer is – maybe a bit surprising – very little. As possibly could be expected with a technology change such as this, the overall audience has gone down slightly, but on the positive side the listeners have discovered and embraced the new range of stations, with services such as the new NRK P1+ already daily reaching 6% of the audience.
Previously, Norway had a handful of nationwide FM channels, but now DAB+ offers around 30 nationwide services. At the time of writing, 5 of the 6 regions have switched off the FM signals from FM to DAB+ with the last one taking place Dec 13th 2017.
The major groups such as NRK (Norwegian Public Service) and Bauer Norway have been using GSelector from RCS to schedule both the FM stations and now the new DAB+ stations, more than doubling the number of stations they schedule. By original design, GSelector stores all data for all stations in a single database, making it a breeze to create new channels, and with the flexibility of DAB+, these can even be temporary channels, for certain events or seasons. With GSelector these stations can be set up and deliver great schedule within hours, if needed.
We have also packed GSelector with additional features to make sure that running many stations is as effortless as possible. We have the unique Schedule Subscription Service (S3) that allows stations to subscribe to schedules created by other stations. Maybe you want to share the overnight schedule, maybe the A, B & C songs should be the same, but other categories different. S3 is very flexible, will respect many layers of user rights AND the stations do not even have to be in the same database – you can share schedules with stations across the world.
If you are interested to find out more ways we can help you deliver great schedules for multiple stations, please contact your local RCS office for more information.