There’s a large amount of noise and conflicting information emanating from Germany at the moment in the wake of an announcement by KEF, the federal body that administers the public service licencing funding in Germany.
The headline information is that the KEF have made some dramatic (indeed, melodramatic) announcements about DAB Digital Radio, some of which seem to be some distance from the reality the rest of the world is experiencing, and possibly partisan.
Rather than comment further here, I’ll just note that the outcome is far from definite, and I am informed that the various Ländesmedien are preparing to comment over the next couple of days. Once their side of the story has been stated, I’ll see if that stabilises the picture enough to say something meaningful about it.
Added to that, the right kind of restructuring and refocusing of effort around DAB in Germany might not be an altogether bad thing. It would appear that the German public service broadcasters have been generously funded to promote DAB, and the outcome has been somewhat underwhelming. In the UK we seem to have achieved a great deal more with the essential additions of wit and passion.