UK to close down FM in 2017

The U.K. will start to close down its analog FM and AM broadcasts in 2017, according to an article in Saturday's Financial Times. In 2020 all radio in the U.K. will be digital, if the plans are realized.

The proposal is included in the government's Digital Britain white paper, which is presented to the parliament on Tuesday. FT's sources say that the British analog close-down has been accelerated by the French decision that all radios sold in France must be digital by 2013.

NRJ Group in Google link-up

France's NRJ Group, one of the major radio owners in Europe, is setting up an ad-sales cooperation with Google AdWords.

NRJ will sell Google search ads to its 10,000 local advertisers in France, Radioactu.com reports. NRJ expects that the deal will also increase sales at NRJ's local radio stations.

”The Internet medium, which is the best friend of radio, will have a strong growth on the local level, where NRJ is historically very present. This deal with Google lets us offer a complete AdWords package to local advertisers, which will reinforce our position as the leader when it comes to localised Internet” NRJ's CEO Jean-Paul Baudecroix says to Radioactu.com.