Technisat counts on growth through DAB+ and sees potential in disaster alerting

The electronics manufacturer Technisat, which produces radios in Schöneck in the Vogtland region, is building on further growth through digital reception via DAB+. Since the introduction of this broadcasting standard, around 16 million devices have been sold in Germany, Managing Director Stefan Kön told the German Press Agency. And in future, these radios could also play an important role in alerting the population in the event of a disaster. In Kön's view, however, a binding date is finally needed for the switch-off of analog FM. He hopes this will give an additional boost to the spread of digital reception.

In Saxony, the plan is actually to switch off FM at the end of 2025. But the date is shaky. A draft by the governing coalition plans to remove the date from the Private Broadcasting Act. "This deletion is intended to continue to take into account the diversity of radio programs in the Free State of Saxony," it says. The law is now to be amended in the first half of 2024.

There are good arguments in favor of DAB+, explained the State Chancellery in response to a dpa query. These include a greater variety of programs, lower distribution costs and high reception quality. However, FM is still the most frequently used type of reception and a statutory switch-off date would lead to a loss of coverage, it said.

According to the "Audio Trends 2023" study by the state media authorities, FM use in Germany is on the decline. However, a good half of the population still prefers this type of reception - ten years ago it was just under 80 percent. A good third now primarily use digital radio. According to the report, 13.3 million households currently have at least one DAB+ radio set. Saxony is one of the frontrunners along with Bavaria - more than 40 percent of households in both states already have DAB+. In addition, every second person in Germany uses radio via the internet at least occasionally.

Technisat has been producing in Vogtland since the early 1990s. The portfolio currently includes various electronic components as well as wallboxes for electric cars and digital radios. Kön emphasized that Technisat is the market leader for these in Germany and referred to industry figures from the market research institute GfK. According to these figures, no other company sold as many digital clock radios, portable radios and compact systems in Germany in the first nine months of this year as Technisat. However, the devices from the Vogtland region are also exported abroad, for example to France, Italy, Spain and Scandinavia, explained Kön.

Technisat is based in Rhineland-Palatinate and the company reportedly employs around 80 people at its Schöneck site. Kön does not want to comment on exact sales figures, nor on current turnover and profits. The last publicly available figures are from 2021, when turnover was reported at a total of 248.9 million euros and net profit at just under 4.4 million euros.

According to Kön, digital radios could become more important for alerting people in the event of disasters. With mobile radio, there is a risk that the network could be overloaded in such a situation and fail. Although the warning functions in digital radios are still in the development phase, the first devices with basic functions are already on the market, according to Technisat. The aim: In the event of a disaster, the current radio program should not only be interrupted to issue warnings. Instead, the devices should be able to be activated by remote control when they are in standby mode. This would allow people to be alerted at night, for example.