United Kingdom - Automotive - History
18.08.2015
New cars with DAB hit 70%
New data from CAP/SMMT shows that in March, 70% of new car registrations had digital radio as standard, up by 22% from the Q2 2014. In the UK there has been 40 consecutive months of growth in car sales and the top 10 best-selling cars in 2015 all have Dab as standard now. Commercial vehicles with DAB as standard also grew to 26.3% this quarter from 22% in Q1, a rise of 20% and up from only 5.6% a year ago.
According to RAJAR, digital listening in car has grown by 48% year on year and now accounts for almost 17% in all car listening.
A total of 19 of the top 20 selling brands now offer DAB digital radio as standard on their models with market leaders Ford, Vauxhall, VW, Audi and BMW fitting DAB into the vast majority of their cars.
With over 35 million cars on the road, the challenge (and opportunity) remains in the aftermarket. Digital Radio UK is working with the industry to support the growing aftermarket with consistent media and in-store promotional campaigns. As of April 2015, over 4 million cars on the road in the UK are able to receive digital radio (15% of all cars).
RAC launches digital radio installation service
The RAC is a vehicle repair and recovery service in the UK. They are the first repair group to launch an online digital radio installation service with fully fitted adapters from £149.99 [see here]. There are currently two products available, the AutoDAB Connect (£149.99 fitted) and the JustDRIVE DAB (£219.99 fitted) - both tick mark approved.
Digital Radio UK – Digital Dashboard Audit
Drivers love digital radio in cars, and DAB digital radio is increasingly becoming the norm; 70% of new cars in the UK now come with DAB as standard. However, the introduction of connected cars and changes to digital dashboards could affect the ability of drivers to access broadcast radio. Digital Radio UK has conducted a Digital Dashboard Audit to find out if radio is still prominent on dashboards and assess the implications of connectivity on the user experience. Read the full report here.
Service Following
Alongside the launch of the Digital Radio Certification Mark; Arqiva, Global Radio and Digital Radio UK have rolled out service following for Global Radio to all those ensembles carrying Global Radio services – Capital, Heart, XFM, Gold and Classic FM. This is a significant milestone for the industry and comes after three years of trials. Service following is required as part of the Minimum Specification for in-vehicle products, therefore this test route will be useful for manufacturers to test their products. For more information contact Sam Bonham, Technology Development Manager, Digital Radio UK sam.bonham@digitalradiouk.com.
06.08.2015
- The latest data from CAP/SMMT shows that 70% of new cars sold in Q2 2015 came with DAB as standard, up from 64.2% in Q1 (see chart below). During the quarter, April saw a high of 70.6%, driven by the new number plate and new model introductions.
- This is an increase of 28% compared with Q2 2014 and 83% compared with 2013 and in the last 12 months over 1.6 million cars have been sold with digital radio fitted as standard.
- This shows the continued support from car manufacturers and this was evident in the new data from CAP which showed that 8 out of the top 10 manufacturers increased the % of their ranges with DAB as standard.
- Commercial vehicles with DAB as standard also grew to 26.3% this quarter from 22% in Q1, a rise of 20% and up from only 5.6% a year ago.
- June is the 40th consecutive month of growth in UK car sales and the top 10 best-selling cars so far this year all have DAB as standard now that the Vauxhall Astra launched last month with DAB.
Driven by car manufacturers’ decision to fit DAB as standard in 70% new cars (CAP/SMMT July 2015), digital listening in cars continues to accelerate, growing by 48% year on year to just under 17% (16.9%) of all listening in cars (RAJAR Q2 2015).
Top 10 best-selling UK cars May 2015 (SMMT)
|
|
Model |
Digital radio as standard* |
|
1 |
Ford Fiesta |
Yes |
|
2 |
Ford Focus |
Yes |
|
3 |
Vauxhall Corsa |
Yes |
|
4 |
VW Golf |
Yes |
|
5 |
Vauxhall Astra |
Yes |
|
6 |
Mini |
Yes |
|
7 |
VW Polo |
Yes |
|
8 |
Audi A3 |
Yes |
|
9 |
Nissan Qashqai |
Yes |
|
10 |
Nissan Juke |
Yes |
*on all or some models
With over 35 million cars on the road, the challenge (and opportunity) remains in the aftermarket. Digital Radio UK is working with the industry to support the growing aftermarket with consistent media and in-store promotional campaigns. As of June 2015, over 5 million cars on the road in the UK are able to receive digital radio (15.4% of all cars).
RAC launches digital radio installation service
The RAC has launched an online digital radio installation service with fully fitted adapters from £149.99 [see here]. There are currently two products available, the AutoDAB Connect (£149.99 fitted) and the JustDRIVE DAB (£219.99 fitted) - both tick mark approved.
Digital Radio UK - Digital Dashboard Audit
Consumers love digital radio in cars, and DAB digital radio is increasingly becoming the norm; 61.1% of new cars in the UK now come with DAB as standard. However, the introduction of connected cars and changes to digital dashboards could affect the ability of drivers to access broadcast radio. Digital Radio UK has conducted a Digital Dashboard Audit to find out if radio is still prominent on dashboards and assess the implications of connectivity on the user experience. Read the full report here.
Service Following
- Alongside the launch of the Digital Radio Certification Mark; Arqiva, Global Radio and Digital Radio UK set up a test area to demonstrate the DAB service following system. The objective of setting up this test was to provide DAB radio receiver manufacturers with an ETSI standard-compliant demonstration of service following use cases, as defined in ETSI 103 176, and to confirm the UK Broadcast Digital Radio Technical Codes and Guidance published by OFCOM.
- Following an initial trial in the south and south-west of England this year, Arqiva has confirmed that service-following will now be rolled out across the UK by 30 July.
- Initially this will upgrade all multiplexes that are carrying Global services and over time this will broaden as more broadcasters take advantage of the technology.
- This is great news for the vehicle industry who have been working hard to ensure digital receivers can deliver service following as part of the digital tick mark requirements.
- Service following is required as part of the minimum specification for in-vehicle products, therefore this test route will be useful for manufacturers to test their products. Download the Service Following Test Route Technical Document. For more information contact Sam Bonham, Technology Development Manager, Digital Radio UK sam.bonham@digitalradiouk.com.
Service following launched in the UK
Service following (the ability to link between local DAB stations in car) is now live in South-East England and will be rolled out across the UK throughout this year.
03.06.2015
New data from CAP/SMMT shows that in March, 64.9% of new car registrations had digital radio as standard, up from 50.7% the previous March. March is the largest registration month of the year and the month of March 2015 saw a record 320,000 new cars sold with DAB as standard, an increase of 36% year on year. In total 1.5 million cars were registered with digital radio as standard in the year to March 2015. An additional 10% of cars also have digital radio available as a cost option, meaning that three-quarters (75%) of new cars in the UK now have digital radio available as standard or as an option.
The strong shift to digital radio in new cars comes as UK new car sales have rebounded to reach new record levels. Overall new car registrations for March 2015 were a record 492,774 new cars, of which 302,000 came with DAB as standard.
According to RAJAR, 61% of all radio listeners listen in the car and 22.2% of all radio listening takes place in car (RAJAR Q4 2014).
Of the top 20 selling car brands in the UK 5 of them have digital radio as standard in 100% of all models – Audi, BMW, Mini, Land Rover and Jaguar – while a further 8 have digital radio as standard in the majority of all models – Ford, Vauxhall, VW, Nissan, Mercedes, Toyota, Citroen and Skoda.
As of Q2 2015, 22% of new commercial vehicles now have digital radio as standard compared with 3.5% in Q1 2014.
With over 35 million cars on the road, the challenge (and opportunity) remains in the aftermarket. Digital Radio UK is working with the industry to support the growing aftermarket with consistent media and in-store promotional campaigns. As of April 2015, over 4 million cars on the road in the UK are able to receive digital radio (15% of all cars).
RAC launches digital radio installation service
The RAC has launched an online digital radio installation service with fully fitted adapters from £149.99 [see here]. There are currently two products available, the AutoDAB Connect (£149.99 fitted) and the JustDRIVE DAB (£219.99 fitted) - both tick mark approved.
Digital Radio UK - Digital Dashboard Audit
Consumers love digital radio in cars, and DAB digital radio is increasingly becoming the norm; 61.1% of new cars in the UK now come with DAB as standard. However, the introduction of connected cars and changes to digital dashboards could affect the ability of drivers to access broadcast radio. Digital Radio UK has conducted a Digital Dashboard Audit to find out if radio is still prominent on dashboards and assess the implications of connectivity on the user experience. Read the full report here.
Service Following
Alongside the launch of the Digital Radio Certification Mark; Arqiva, Global Radio and Digital Radio UK have set up a test area to demonstrate the DAB service following system. The objective of setting up this test is to provide DAB radio receiver manufacturers with an ETSI standard-compliant demonstration of service following use cases, as defined in ETSI 103 176, and to confirm the UK Broadcast Digital Radio Technical Codes and Guidance published by OFCOM. The UK’s service following test route has been set up and is now live. Service following is required as part of the minimum specification for in-vehicle products, therefore this test route will be useful for manufacturers to test their products. Download the Service Following Test Route Technical Document. For more information contact Sam Bonham, Technology Development Manager, Digital Radio UK sam.bonham@digitalradiouk.com.
Service following launched in the UK
Service following (the ability to link between local DAB stations in car) is now live in South-East England and will be rolled out across the UK throughout this year.