In Switzerland and Schleswig-Holstein, concrete plans have recently been made for the end of FM radio broadcasting: In the northernmost German federal state, stations will gradually phase out analogue broadcasting between 2025 and 2031 in Switzerland; 2024 and private stations will follow until the end of 2026. If everything goes according to plan, radio will only be available via DAB+, cable or the Internet.
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But Schleswig-Holstein and Switzerland are exceptions in the German-speaking countries. Despite the high costs of parallel broadcasting via FM and the digital DAB+ process, there is still no timetable for an FM phase-out in the remaining federal states and Austria.
Politics is not forcing the end of FM
Broadcasting in Germany is a state matter. In a survey of the 15 federal states south of Schleswig-Holstein, no state government stated a target date for a VHF phase-out. Several government speakers pointed to the advantages of DAB+, such as more efficient use of scarce frequency resources, lower energy requirements on the transmission side, lower distribution costs or Emergency Alert Function EWF.But most people in Germany still listen via FM.
According to the study Audio Trends 2023 According to state media authorities, 86 percent of households have at least one FM radio, but only 33 percent have a DAB+-enabled device, including car radios. Most state governments also emphasize this fact: “FM is still the most widely used means of distribution for radio reception. Especially for private radio broadcasters, it is the backbone of refocusing on the advertising market,” writes the Berlin Senate.
Opposition to private broadcasters
The reluctance of politicians is also due to the fact that all previous attempts to set an FM phase-out date have failed: Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony originally planned to switch to DAB+ by the end of 2025, but both state governments canceled these rules after protests from private broadcasters again. The Bavarian State Media Authority wanted to allow FM licenses to expire by 2032 at the latest, and private broadcasters were also ambivalent about this. In its coalition agreement, the new coalition of the CSU and the Free Voters spoke in favor of extending the VHF licenses until 2035.
But why is it now apparently working in Schleswig-Holstein? The black-green state government planned to make Schleswig-Holstein a “leading digital radio region” in its coalition agreement. The fact that there are only a few advertising-financed broadcasters in Schleswig-Holstein compared to other federal states could be helpful in discussions with broadcasters. In addition, only a few stations broadcast to Schleswig-Holstein from neighbouring federal states. For the companies, the risk that their listeners will move to the competition after FM is phased out is relatively low.
According to the Audio Trends study, only a third of households in Schleswig-Holstein currently have access to DAB+. Many people in the state will have to buy digital radio in the next few years if they want to continue listening via antenna. After all, the proportion of households with DAB+ there has recently increased rapidly; in 2022 it was only 27 percent.
The Finance Commission is slowly losing patience
It is now quite possible that at least public broadcasters across the country will stop FM broadcasting by 2032. The Commission for Determining the Financial Needs of Broadcasters (KEF) no longer wants to recognize the costs of FM broadcasting from 2033. Originally, it no longer wanted to do so from 2029, but the target date was postponed due to “media policy decisions that have still not been made regarding a coordinated exit from FM broadcasting.” As stated in the current KEF report,
KEF has long been critical of the simultaneous broadcasting of FM and DAB+ due to the high costs. According to them, FM broadcasting by the public broadcasters (ARD and Deutschlandradio) will cost 221 million euros from 2025 to 2028. According to ARD estimates, the cost of pure DAB+ distribution is 80 percent of VHF costs.
Austria lags behind in digital radio
DAB+ only launched in Austria in 2018, so phasing out FM is not yet an issue there. “Compared to the more than 20-year history of DAB/DAB+ in Germany, it is perhaps understandable that considerations about phasing out FM have no relevance for us yet,” a spokesperson for regulatory authority ComAustria said when asked by c’t.
(CWO)
