Reelin’ in the years: tracking the growth of DAB+

17.02.2025 by Bernie O'Neill

As we published our latest infographic to coincide with World Radio Day 2025, I wanted to go back to the archives to see how far we’d travelled on our DAB+ journey, compared to some of the earliest editions of our research document. I should first place on record our thanks to Rebecca Keene, our Stakeholder Relations Manager, who works tirelessly to gather detailed data in partnership with our many valued country contacts.

In 2013, the organisation - then known as “WorldDMB” (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) - published its initial data-drop. “WorldDMB has, for the first time, collated key statistics from digital radio markets around the world,” the factsheet announced. “The aim is to present in an easily accessible format, the status and progress of DAB / DAB+ in nine major territories.”

In the first year of the infographic, the United Kingdom led the way with 20 million receiver sales (including pre-2008 data). Today, this figure stands at an impressive 55 million. Australia, Norway and Switzerland each had over 1 million receivers sold in 2013 — and just over ten years later, those figures now stand at 10m, 9m, and 6m respectively, alongside Germany now totaling 28 million and Italy reporting 12 million sales.

The 2013 infographic already showed comprehensive DAB+ coverage in many areas, with Switzerland at 99% and Denmark at 98%. Our latest infographic compares 2013 figures with current coverage and highlights the recent work by France to boost coverage to over 60% of the mainland population. Meanwhile Spain’s first year of DAB+ already brings it close to the goal of reaching 50% coverage, boosted by last week’s addition of the metropolitan area of Guadalajara, with RNE's digital radio broadcasts now available in 15 Spanish cities.

In 2016, WorldDAB launched its update of the infographic at that year's IBC Convention in Amsterdam, reporting that “almost 50 million consumer and automotive receivers (48,232,000) have been sold across the featured markets”, while “over half of radio listening in Switzerland is now digital (53%).”

Jump forward to 2025, and as our current publication reports, receiver sales are nearing 150 million (to Q4 2023), and over 80% of listening in Switzerland is digital. Just 8% of the Swiss population listens exclusively on FM, from research completed before Swiss public broadcaster SRG SSR switched off its FM transmitters.

Two other significant changes from early editions of the infographic are notable. The automotive DAB+ market has been transformed since the European Electronic Communications Code (EECC) was introduced in December 2020, with almost all new cars across Europe coming with DAB+ as standard.

Alongside this, there is the exciting growth in DAB+ across eastern Europe, Asia and Africa. Our latest infographic details the rollout status in 25 emerging markets, highlighting new data on DAB+ coverage in markets such as Croatia (98.4%); Slovenia (92%), Poland (87.9%); Serbia (80%) and Slovakia (72%).

It also focusses attention on the significant broadening of choice for listeners with over 60 national stations now on DAB in the United Kingdom, against seven on analogue, and growth also in Belgium, Czechia and Italy where listeners can enjoy over 50 national DAB+ stations.

We may have changed logos and updated the format, but I’m proud to say WorldDAB remains committed to gathering and sharing data on the global growth of DAB+ digital broadcast radio. Our new infographic can be downloaded from our website at: https://www.worlddab.org/resources/infographic.

The author is Project Director at WorldDAB. An experienced people connector within the digital radio industry, Bernie has headed WorldDAB since 2011, with overall responsibility for the direction and management of WorldDAB activities. Together with her team and the global network of WorldDAB members she works to further the adoption and implementation of DAB+, the digital successor of FM radio.  With a background in leadership of international trade associations for over 25 years, her career expands over several industries including radio, ICT, water and education. She is an expert at driving business development, delivering value to stakeholders, strategically aligning teams, and developing effective marketing communications. Trained in international business, she has held postings in London, Brussels, and The Hague.