Digital Commercial Radio

Digital commercial radio is a form of broadcasting where the radio signal is transmitted digitally (DAB*) in the terrestrial network.

To listen to these stations, you have to have a radio that can receive the digital signal. Traditional radios can only receive analogue broadcasts. Digital radio is still in a roll-out phase, although digital broadcasting has been available in Sweden since 1995. It can be compared with television, which began digital broadcasting in the late 1990s and completely switched off analogue terrestrial broadcasting in 2007. But now more and more radio market players  are starting to broadcast digitally. One of the advantages of broadcasting in a digital terrestrial network is that the range of services is much wider.

The space for broadcasting digital commercial radio in the terrestrial network is limited, and so a licence from us is required. This licence specifies the area in which your radio channel is allowed to broadcast. Every eight years, broadcasters with the technical and financial capacity to do so may apply for licences for their digital radio channels.

*DAB – Digital Audio Broadcast

Besides the commercial radio channels, the public service broadcasters’ non-commercial radio channels are also broadcast in the digital terrestrial network. However, these channels are licensed by the Government.