Next RDS Forum meeting in October 2026 at Geneva
1974: Pre-developments starts within EBU.
1980: First Field Trial at Bern/Interlaken, Switzerland.
1982: Tests start in Stockholm, Sweden Evaluation of eight systems in Helsinki RDS Baseband Coding agreed Second Field Trial at Bern/Interlaken.
1983: Industry/Broadcasters meeting at EBU.
Industry/Broadcaster Field Trial in Munich, Germany.
RDS adopted by EBU and Industry - submitted to CCIR.
1984: First US presentation of RDS in Detroit.
Ford starts RDS car radio development.
RDS Specification EBU 3244 published.
1985: Large scale pre-operational trial in Germany.
EBU recommends RDS introduction.
Industry/Broadcasters confirm first receivers and broadcast services to start in 1987.
1986: First presentation of RDS at NAB in Dallas.
RDS as CCIR (now ITU-R) Recommendation published.
First RDS logo created by BBC published by EBU.
1987: Ireland, France and Sweden introduce RDS.
First RDS Receivers shown at IFA Berlin.
Volvo markets World's first RDS Car Radio.
1988: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Italy and UK introduce RDS. Blaupunkt, Grundig and
Philips manufacture RDS Car Radios.
BBC creates new RDS logo for EBU. EBU recommends use of new RDS logo instead of the old one
from 1986.
1989: RDS enhancements: EON developed and tested in UK.
Portugal, Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland introduce RDS.
Presentation of RDS in Washington DC and at NAB Las Vegas, USA.
1990: First presentation of RDS at Broadcast Asia, Singapore and in South Africa. RDS European Standard CENELEC EN 50067:1990 published.
1991: RDS EON Receivers shown at IFA.
Hong Kong introduces RDS.
First presentation of RDS in China.
1992: South Africa introduces RDS.
RDS European Standard updated - CENELEC EN 50067:1992 published.
Products in USA will also use RDS name and logo (created by BBC in 1986, redesigned in 1988).
1993: RBDS Standard published in the USA.
RDS portable radios become available.
RDS Forum created by EBU.
RBDS promoted at Consumer Electronics Show, Chicago.
1994: RDS-TMC endorsed by EC.
DGPS first implemented in Sweden.
1998: RDS/RBDS standards harmonized. Some differences remain nevertheless. CENELEC EN 50067:1998 - Newly updated RDS standard published. ODA is part of it.
1999: RDS Forum is becoming independent of the EBU and established as a not-for profit industry association in Geneva.
2000: RDS CENELEC standard EN 50067:1998 is re-issued as IEC standard 62106 - Edition 1.
2005: RT+ is agreed in RDS Forum as an important enhancement.
FM/RDS radio starts to be increasingly used in mobile phones, small music players and short-range
transmission devices.
For FM/RDS radio IC chips the market growth becomes gigantic. Over 100 million of these chips are
made within one year.
Updated RBDS standard is published as NRSC-4-A.
2006: Broadcasters in Germany start to use RadioText Plus (RT+).
2008: Broadcasters in the USA start to use RT+.
2009: 25th anniversary of the publication of the first EBU specification of RDS.
Updated RDS IEC standard 62106 - Edition 2 is published.
RT+ is implemented in iPod nano (5G).
Over 600 million FM/RDS radio ICs are now made within one year.
2014: 30th anniversary of the publication of the first EBU specification of RDS.
Over one billion FM/RDS radio ICs are now made within one year.
2015: RDS Forum decides RDS2 development.
Updated RDS IEC standard 62106 - Edition 3 is published.
First RDS2 Info Day in Berlin: Presentation of first RDS2 encoder and USB RDS2 receiver stick
2016: RDS Forum submits to IEC draft for newly re-structured RDS/RDS2 standard.
Second RDS2 Info Day in Paris: Presentation of RDS2 at Radio France
2018: At NAB Show in Las Vegas WorldCast Systems presents the first commercially available RDS/RDS2 encoder.RDS2 file transfer protocol RFT specification is published in October. Updated RDS IEC standard 62106:2018 Parts 1 to 6 are published. Radio France demonstrates the RFT implementation transmitting and receiving files with Station logo and Music cover art.
2019: 35th anniversary of the publication of the first EBU specification of RDS. Radio France in cooperation with Caméon and WCS presents at the European Radio Show Station logo and Music cover art synchronized with the music item just broadcast. A group of experts from the RDS Forum meets in Paris and creates the basis for specifying Station logo, Slideshow and Internet ODAs for RDS2.
2021: The IEC publishes IEC 62106-2 ED2 which contains the RDS2 File Transfer protocol RFT and Part 9 which contains the RBDS specifications for RDS used in North America and Part 10, the Universal Encoder Communication Protocol UECP with all the new commands needed for implementing the RDS2 option.
2022: The RDS Forum submits to the IEC the new specifications for RDS2 ODAs of Station logo, Slideshow, Linkage to Internet and a new protocol, NFM, to transmit RDS data over other bearers. The respective newly updated standard IEC 62106-6 ED.2 is expected for early 2023. ITU-R Study Group 6 approved an update for ITU-R Rec BS 643-3. The new version is also expected for early 2023. The RDS Forum meeting held in October 2022 created a partnership with the DRM Consortium. The purpose is to exchange information for radio data applications with the aim to harmonise them.
RT+ is a feature that can be used to capture Music title and Artist name within RadioText.
Likewise one can capture the web address for the home page of the tuned radio programme and much more, see IEC 62106-6.
Here are two demos for a mobile phone that has an Internet connection and an FM/RDS radio