DAB likely to be switched off in Bavaria in 2011

News from the Wohnort DAB website is that the Bavarian regulator, the BLM, has advertised some capacity that has been freed up on one of the local DAB multiplexes in the region, and this has revealed how the DAB / DAB+ issue is being planned in Bavaria.

Radio stations applying for the freed up capacity will be free to use either the MP2 audio format that's used on the old DAB system or the AAC+ audio codec that's been adopted for DAB+ (although the transmission provider Bayern Digital Radio won't be ready for DAB+ until the end of 2008), but that transmissions must use AAC+ from 1st May 2011 onwards. Therefore, assuming that this will apply to the other local DAB multiplexes in the Bavaria region, DAB looks likely to be switched off there by 2011. I'm sure people will be distraught at the prospect.