Spain’s Council of Ministers has approved a decree making DAB+ the required digital radio standard for national broadcasters and expanding coverage obligations for public broadcaster RTVE. The move gives fresh momentum to DAB+ in Spain, but it does not set out an immediate nationwide transition.
Under the decree, RTVE must extend its DAB+ coverage to 80% of the population within 30 months. It must also cover 70% of towns with more than 25,000 residents and 70% of the country’s motorways and dual carriageways within that period, according to the Spanish government.
The government says broadcasters can introduce DAB+ by adapting the signal coding on existing transmission networks, without building a new transmission system or switching off the older DAB standard. It also points to DAB+’s more robust audio signal, multichannel audio and support for Automatic Safety Alerts, which can deliver targeted emergency messages, text and images to compatible receivers.
The government notes that EU rules require integrated radios in new passenger vehicles to receive digital terrestrial radio. The European Electronic Communications Code sets that requirement; it does not specify DAB+.
The requirements initially apply only to broadcasters operating nationally. Regional and local operators can adopt DAB+ voluntarily, while each autonomous community will set the date when broadcasts in its territory must move to the standard.
So this is significant progress: Spain has approved a national framework and given its public broadcaster a defined coverage target. But the decree does not announce an FM switch-off, and regional and local rollout dates remain to be set. For now, it marks a policy commitment rather than a completed nationwide transition.
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