Czech Radio to Take Part at the World DAB Forum, Further Promoting the Development of Digitisation
For the first time in its history, Czech Radio will represent the Czech Republic at the prestigious WorldDAB Forum – which supports the promotion of digital audio broadcasting – through Czech Radio’s Interim Director General Karel Zýka’s appointment as a member to its Steering Board. As a result, Czech Radio will be able to secure a better negotiating position internationally, especially in relation to car producers, digital radio manufacturers, and national and supranational bodies.
Czech Radio’s Interim Director General, Karel Zýka: “Czech Radio has taken a number of important steps towards digital radio broadcasting, most notably by launching an experimental DAB broadcasting service for Prague and its surrounding areas in August. WorldDAB is a forum which promotes the development of digital radio broadcasting on a global scale. Its focus is primarily on conditions, technologies, and developments associated with digital radio stations and transmitters, and on providing national support to individual control bodies. Czech Radio’s involvement with this prestigious forum has solidified our position as a leader and facilitator of the digitisation process in the Czech Republic.”
WorldDAB is an autonomous forum, independent of any institutions and unions. It is based in London and is the largest professional body in the world devoted to digital radio broadcasting. Representatives on WorldDAB Forum’s Steering Board include producers of DAB devices, broadcasters, operators, and individual national bodies that promote the transition to DAB. Its main tasks include consultancy and support related to the national activities of its individual members in the sphere of DAB broadcasting.
Czech Radio has prepared a detailed programme for its transition to digital broadcasting and is now ready to switch to DAB. The station has also introduced specific prerequisites needed for the advancement of DAB in the Czech Republic. These include legislative changes, financing of simultaneous analogue and digital broadcasting, and coordination with the private sector. In order to ensure a smooth and successful digitisation process, Czech Radio also calls for the formation of a national coordination group and the specification of a “digitisation timetable”.
Jiří Hošna
Spokesperson
Phone: +420 725 793 397
E-mail: jiri.hosna@rozhlas.cz