United Kingdom - Current situation - History
25.02.2015
Drive to Digital: NOW Conference
On Friday 6 February the Drive to Digital: NOW conference was held with a series of announcements from Ed Vaizey MP, Minister of State for Culture and the Digital Economy (pictured below) about digital radio policy and progress. The Minister outlined how the switchover criteria for coverage and listening could be achieved over the next 2 years. The DRUK press release is available to download here.
Download the presentations from Drive to Digital:NOW
ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM THE CONFERENCE:
Local DAB coverage expansion
The Minister announced the single biggest expansion of local digital radio coverage, which means that nearly eight million more people will get local DAB for the first time and over 6,700km of roads will also be added to local DAB coverage. 182 new digital transmitters will be built by 2016 – this will double the network of local digital transmitters and increase coverage of local DAB from 72 per cent to 91 per cent.
BBC DAB coverage expansion to complete this year
Helen Boaden, Director of Radio at The BBC, said that the expansion of BBC national DAB coverage will complete in 2015. Half of the 162 new national digital transmitters have been built with the rest, taking the coverage of BBC national stations on DAB to 97 per cent.
Record number of new vehicles with DAB
The Minister and Mike Hawes, CEO of The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, highlighted new data showing that more than 61 per cent of new cars now come with digital radio as standard, up from 43.5 per cent in Q4 2013 and only 4.4 per cent in Q1 2010 (CAP/SMMT) at the beginning of the Government’s Digital Radio Action Plan. Over 21% of new commercial vehicles were sold with DAB as standard in Q4 2014 (28% in December 2014), up from 10% in Q3.
Halfords and VW to launch the Digital Radio Tick Mark
Halfords announced that they will be launching the tick mark on their range of digital radios from April and the tick mark will be present in all of their 470 UK stores. VW’s network of 330 UK dealerships have also become the first tick mark “Approved Dealers”.
Service following launched in the UK
Will Harding, Chief Strategy Officer at Global and Steve Holebrook from Arqiva, confirmed that 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.
Rajar news: Digital listening overtakes analogue listening in the home
The latest figures from Rajar showed that in home, listening to digital radio overtook analogue for the first time. The proportion of in-home radio listening via digital grew to 46.2% in the final three months of last year, overtaking analogue (45.6%).
Digital Radio Switchover
The UK radio industry is committed to a digital future for radio and is working towards a Digital Radio Switchover. Cick here to read the speech presented by Ed Vaizey, UK Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, at the Representation of the Free State of Bavaria to the EU, Brussels, 26th November 2014, at the conference: "Digital Audio Broadcasting: A sustainable future broadcasting model for Europe".
Government criteria for setting a date for digital radio switchover are:
- Digital listening share to reach 50% of all listening hours
- When local commercial and national DAB coverage reaches FM equivalence
The DCMS Digital Radio Action Plan has now been completed. Details can be found on the U.K Government website.
DIGITAL RADIO FACTS AND FIGURES:
- Digital listening now 36.6%, up 7% year on year from 34.4% (Rajar Q1, 2014)
- DAB is the most popular device for digital listening (65% of all digital hours
- 25 million adults have access to a DAB digital radio, up 10% year on year
- DAB listening is 23.7%, up 5% year on year
- Listening online/via apps is 6.4%, up 27% year on year
- 51% of the population tunes in via a digital platform each week, up 13% year on year
- Digital listening hours up 7% year on year from 355 million to 379 million
- The share of analogue listening in home is below 50%, at 49.7%
- As of September 2014, 58% of new cars came with DAB digital radio as standard, up from 47%% in September 2013
In July 2014, UK media regulator Ofcom announced that it was inviting bids to run a second national DAB digital radio multiplex, to sit alongside the existing Digital One network, and all the local digital radio platforms that currently operate. The launch of Digital Two could potentially provide capacity for a further 15 national radio stations and more stations exclusive to DAB.
23.02.2015
Drive to Digital: NOW Conference
On Friday 6 February the Drive to Digital: NOW conference was held with a series of announcements from Ed Vaizey MP, Minister of State for Culture and the Digital Economy (pictured below) about digital radio policy and progress. The Minister outlined how the switchover criteria for coverage and listening could be achieved over the next 2 years. The DRUK press release is available to download here.
Download the presentations from Drive to Digital:NOW
ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM THE CONFERENCE:
Local DAB coverage expansion
The Minister announced the single biggest expansion of local digital radio coverage, which means that nearly eight million more people will get local DAB for the first time and over 6,700km of roads will also be added to local DAB coverage. 182 new digital transmitters will be built by 2016 – this will double the network of local digital transmitters and increase coverage of local DAB from 72 per cent to 91 per cent.
BBC DAB coverage expansion to complete this year
Helen Boaden, Director of Radio at The BBC, said that the expansion of BBC national DAB coverage will complete in 2015. Half of the 162 new national digital transmitters have been built with the rest, taking the coverage of BBC national stations on DAB to 97 per cent.
Record number of new vehicles with DAB
The Minister and Mike Hawes, CEO of The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, highlighted new data showing that more than 61 per cent of new cars now come with digital radio as standard, up from 43.5 per cent in Q4 2013 and only 4.4 per cent in Q1 2010 (CAP/SMMT) at the beginning of the Government’s Digital Radio Action Plan. Over 21% of new commercial vehicles were sold with DAB as standard in Q4 2014 (28% in December 2014), up from 10% in Q3.
New commercial DAB stations
The conference heard from the two competing bids for the new national commercial network (D2) from two major broadcast consortia:
- Sound Digital (Dee Ford, Group MD Radio, Bauer media, Scott Taunton, Chief Operating Officer, UTV Media plc, Steve Holebrook, MD Terrestrial Broadcast, Arqiva) which is proposing new stations including talkSPORT2, talkRADIO, talkBUSINESS, Virgin Radio, Kisstory, Magic Mellow and British Muslim Radio
- Listen2Digital (Matt Deegan, Folder media, Paul Firth, Project Director, Babcock, plus Orion Media) which is proposing stations including Fun Kids, the Wireless from Age UK, GEM, Panjab, Chris Country.
Both bids feature new stations on DAB+ and the bidders outlined their plans to build out coverage for the network and to invest in promoting digital radio. Ofcom will decide on the winner this spring and stations are expected to launch next year.
Suzi Perry to voice new digital radio campaign
From April, tech expert and Formula 1 broadcaster Suzi Perry will be the voice of Digital Radio UK’s new communications campaign. The campaign will feature the digital radio tick mark and getting digital radio in your car. This will mark the start of heavyweight communications throughout 2015.
Halfords and VW to launch the Digital Radio Tick Mark
Halfords announced that they will be launching the tick mark on their range of digital radios from April and the tick mark will be present in all of their 470 UK stores. VW’s network of 330 UK dealerships have also become the first tick mark “Approved Dealers”.
Service following launched in the UK
Will Harding, Chief Strategy Officer at Global and Steve Holebrook from Arqiva, confirmed that 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.
Rajar news: Digital listening overtakes analogue listening in the home
The latest figures from Rajar showed that in home, listening to digital radio overtook analogue for the first time. The proportion of in-home radio listening via digital grew to 46.2% in the final three months of last year, overtaking analogue (45.6%).
Digital Radio Switchover
The UK radio industry is committed to a digital future for radio and is working towards a Digital Radio Switchover. Cick here to read the speech presented by Ed Vaizey, UK Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, at the Representation of the Free State of Bavaria to the EU, Brussels, 26th November 2014, at the conference: "Digital Audio Broadcasting: A sustainable future broadcasting model for Europe".
Government criteria for setting a date for digital radio switchover are:
- Digital listening share to reach 50% of all listening hours
- When local commercial and national DAB coverage reaches FM equivalence
The DCMS Digital Radio Action Plan has now been completed. Details can be found on the U.K Government website.
DIGITAL RADIO FACTS AND FIGURES:
- Digital listening now 36.6%, up 7% year on year from 34.4% (Rajar Q1, 2014)
- DAB is the most popular device for digital listening (65% of all digital hours
- 25 million adults have access to a DAB digital radio, up 10% year on year
- DAB listening is 23.7%, up 5% year on year
- Listening online/via apps is 6.4%, up 27% year on year
- 51% of the population tunes in via a digital platform each week, up 13% year on year
- Digital listening hours up 7% year on year from 355 million to 379 million
- The share of analogue listening in home is below 50%, at 49.7%
- As of September 2014, 58% of new cars came with DAB digital radio as standard, up from 47%% in September 2013
In July 2014, UK media regulator Ofcom announced that it was inviting bids to run a second national DAB digital radio multiplex, to sit alongside the existing Digital One network, and all the local digital radio platforms that currently operate. The launch of Digital Two could potentially provide capacity for a further 15 national radio stations and more stations exclusive to DAB.
23.01.2015
Digital Radio Switchover
The UK radio industry is committed to a digital future for radio and is working towards a Digital Radio Switchover. Cick here to read the speech presented by Ed Vaizey, UK Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, at the Representation of the Free State of Bavaria to the EU, Brussels, 26th November 2014, at the conference: "Digital Audio Broadcasting: A sustainable future broadcasting model for Europe".
Government criteria for setting a date for digital radio switchover are:
- Digital listening share to reach 50% of all listening hours
- When local commercial and national DAB coverage reaches FM equivalence
The DCMS Digital Radio Action Plan has now been completed. Details can be found on the U.K Government website.
DIGITAL RADIO FACTS AND FIGURES:
- Digital listening now 36.6%, up 7% year on year from 34.4% (Rajar Q1, 2014)
- DAB is the most popular device for digital listening (65% of all digital hours
- 25 million adults have access to a DAB digital radio, up 10% year on year
- DAB listening is 23.7%, up 5% year on year
- Listening online/via apps is 6.4%, up 27% year on year
- 51% of the population tunes in via a digital platform each week, up 13% year on year
- Digital listening hours up 7% year on year from 355 million to 379 million
- The share of analogue listening in home is below 50%, at 49.7%
- As of September 2014, 58% of new cars came with DAB digital radio as standard, up from 47%% in September 2013
In July 2014, UK media regulator Ofcom announced that it was inviting bids to run a second national DAB digital radio multiplex, to sit alongside the existing Digital One network, and all the local digital radio platforms that currently operate. The launch of Digital Two could potentially provide capacity for a further 15 national radio stations and more stations exclusive to DAB.