2017: a record year for DAB receiver sales

15.05.2018

Almost 12 million DAB receivers were sold in 2017 in Europe and Asia Pacific, a new record for yearly sales. Almost half (5.9m) of the sales were for automotive devices, with key markets showing a significant increase in the number of cars sold with DAB fitted as standard.

Available to download here, the new data published by WorldDAB shows strong growth in the uptake of DAB across all major digital radio markets. The WorldDAB infographic covers DAB receiver sales (including line-fit automotive), population coverage, household penetration, digital radio reach, DAB share of listening and the number of national stations available on DAB – with statistics for ten markets in Europe and Asia Pacific up to the end of 2017.

Cumulative sales for DAB receivers have now reached over 65 million for the markets covered: Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and the UK.

Patrick Hannon, President, WorldDAB said: “The last 12 months have been a strong period for DAB radio. International receiver sales are at their highest level ever – boosted by the switch-off of FM in Norway and strong growth in other European markets. Progress in automotive has been particularly impressive with nearly 6 million new cars sold with DAB radio last year. In addition to the excellent performance in Europe, it’s encouraging to see the development of emerging DAB markets in the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific regions. DAB is increasingly becoming a global standard.”

The UK (36 million), Germany (nearly 10 million) and Norway (nearly 6 million) have the largest installed base of receivers. There has been strong growth in sales of new cars with DAB and most new cars in Norway (98%), the UK (89%) and Switzerland (85%) now come with DAB as standard. Population and road coverage is firmly established in all key markets.

Italy has seen a number of significant announcements in the last few months and receiver sales grew by almost one million, to 3 million at the end of 2017. Last year also saw a significant rise in road coverage, from 75% to 92%.

The infographic now covers over 20 emerging markets, with significant developments in markets as diverse as Algeria, Croatia, Indonesia, Kuwait, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey and Ukraine.

Notes to editors
German sales statistics are updated in September, so the latest infographic will show the same results for Germany as the Q2 2017 update.

Sources for the infographic include: Digital radio survey by Kantar Media, Digitalradio Norge, Norkring AS, TNS Gallup, Ofcom Switzerland, Weer GmbH, DigiMig Trendanalyse 01.2018, GfK, SMMT/CAP UK, BBC, RAJAR/Ipsos MORI/RSMB, Teracom A/S, Media Broadcast, Digitisation report 2017 carried out by TNS Infratest, JATO Dynamics, Digital Radio NL, digitalradio.it, WorldDAB, Glass’s Automotive Business Intelligence, Commercial Radio Australia. Full details on sources for each statistic are available at http://www.worlddab.org