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Press Releases
DW and BBC join forces on DRM
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This is a joint press release from BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle and DRM
Two of the world's major international broadcasters,
BBC World Service and Deutsche Welle, have announced plans
to launch a joint radio service to Europe on DRM Shortwave.
The
new stream, which will be entirely in English, is expected to go
live in early 2009.
Broadcast in clear digital quality, it will
be available from early morning till late at night targetting
Western and Central Europe and a potential audience of 170
million listeners with global news and current affairs and a rich
mix of in-depth analysis, documentaries and cultural programmes.
The service will provide a multimedia offer of audio and text,
the latter coming automatically from the BBC News website.
Eric Betterman, Director General at Deutsche Welle, said: "It is
great that two of the world's most established broadcasters can
work together on a project of this scale.
"This is an exciting
venture that will offer European listeners top class content and
provides the perfect opportunity to reintroduce listeners to
DRM."
Mike Cronk, Controller, Future Media, Technology & Distribution,
BBC World Service, said: "This is an important time for DRM and a
huge opportunity for broadcasters across Europe to look at the
potential for new services and reaching new audiences.
"With
this announcement, two of the most important players in
international broadcasting are re-affirming their faith in the
DRM standard."
Ruxandra Obreja, Chair of the DRM Consortium and Controller,
Business Development, BBC World Service, said: "Deutsche Welle
and the BBC see DRM as the winning solution for the digitisation
of the AM bands on a global scale and they believe that this new
stream for Europe will give a welcome boost to international
digital radio.
"Listeners in Western and Central Europe can now
buy one of the growing selection of DRM-capable receivers and
hear in excellent quality top class programmes that in recent
years they could only access online."
Notes to Editors
About BBC World Service
BBC World Service is an international radio and online
broadcaster delivering programmes and services in 32 languages.
The radio output reaches 183 million weekly listeners around the
globe, on platforms that include SW, AM, FM, digital satellite
and cable channels.
About Deutsche Welle
Deutsche Welle is Germany's international broadcaster. Its
programming on television, radio and the internet focuses on news
and information: DW-TV, topical international television in
German, English, Arabic and Spanish, DW-RADIO in 30 languages and
DW-WORLD.DE, the multimedia and multilingual website.
For more
information – http://www.dw-world.de/.
About DRM
Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) is the digital broadcasting system
for the broadcasting bands below 30MHz (long, medium and short
wave). DRM has near-FM sound quality plus the ease-of-use that
comes from digital transmissions, combined with long range and
low power consumption.
For more information – http://www.drm.org.
BBC World Service Press Office
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