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³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service and Deutsche Welle (DW) are launching a new Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) digital radio channel for South Asia.

The channel will carry a four-hour daily broadcast that includes the best international programmes in English and Hindi from ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service and Deutsche Welle. It will also bring to the audience all the advantages of DRM digital radio including near-FM quality audio, text messages, Journaline and an Electronic Programme Guide (EPG).

This joint initiative between ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service and Deutsche Welle has been launched using two transmitters in the region and will cover much of South Asia. The signal covers the majority of the Indian sub-continent and may reach as far as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and other neighbouring countries.

The new transmission starts on 31 October 2010 and will be broadcast from 1400–1800 GMT each day. Listeners will find the new programme stream on 13590 and 5845 kHz (SW) and additionally on 1548 kHz (MW) between 1700–1800 GMT.

Ruxandra Obreja, DRM Chairman, says: "Digital radio is as much about technology as it is about content. Through DRM we hope to increase the digital radio offer to South Asia giving people access to audio and multimedia content, which should in turn convince manufacturers that digital radio brings something new worth investing in."

Notes to Editors

Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) is the universal, openly standardised digital broadcasting system for all broadcasting frequencies up to 174MHz, including LW, MW, SW, band I and II (FM band).

DRM provides digital sound quality and the ease-of-use that comes from digital radio, combined with a wealth of enhanced features: Surround Sound, Journaline text information, Slideshow, EPG, and data services.

DRM on short, medium and long wave for broadcasting bands up to 30 MHz (called 'DRM30') provides large coverage areas and low power consumption. The enhancement of the DRM standard for broadcast frequencies above 30 MHz ('DRM+') uses the same audio coding, data services, multiplexing and signaling schemes as DRM30 but introduces an additional transmission mode optimized for those bands.

³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service International Publicity