Radio broadcaster Global has announced plans to expand its digital audio exchange Dax to Europe, in a bid to reach an audience of 60 million from 2016.

The move, announced today (19 September) by Global commercial digital director Global Oliver Deane as part of the IAB Upfronts in London, will make Dax the single biggest audio platform across the continent, with companies able to able to advertise on digital radio, music streaming services and podcasts with direct and programmatic buying options.

In his presentation, Deane cited growing listening and demand figures from clients as the motivation behind setting up an international sales team, growing its digital account management team and developing pan-European campaigns in different languages with a network of new creatives reporting to creative director Jo McCrostie.

It is reported that several European streaming, digital radio podcasting platforms heave already signed up to Dax to sell their inventory on the new advertising exchange.

“We created Dax to give brands access to the digital audio market in one single buy,” said Global chief commercial officer Mike Gordon “The growth we’ve experienced in just over a year has defied our expectations.

“In that period, we’ve signed up more than 140 digital audio publishers, 250 forward-thinking advertisers, grown our audience from zero to seven million and demonstrated the power of digital audio to deliver brand messages and help drive traffic to brands’ websites and apps through research among 400,000 smartphone users.”

According to Gordon, Pandora is leading the multibillion US market.

“Our vision for Dax is to recreate the US market across Europe,” he continued. “Dax will continue to expand and transform the market, allowing new digital audio services to thrive by generating ad revenue for them, and giving advertisers access to highly engaged audiences who are receptive to hearing from brands.”