The BBC launched digital radio in the UK in 1995 followed by national commercial multiplex operator Digital One in 1998. Since then local DAB (digital radio) commercial services have become available offering non-national BBC Radio and ILR on a local basis.

Initially digital radio was offered as a high-quality platform but public take up was slow. This was due to an imperceptible improvement in quality, receivers being expensive and not generally available. In 2002 the radio industry realised that quality in itself was not enough to drive the development of digital radio and shifted their focus to choice. Several digital only music services were launched by the commercial sector while the BBC brought to air several digital exclusive radio services.

The most successful of these is BBC Radio 7. Launched in December 2002 it offers the best of comedy, drama and readings from the archive. Listener research has often quoted this station as one of the main reasons they purchase digital radio and is regarded by the industry as one of the main drivers of digital radio in the UK.

Concurrent to this investment by the BBC, more manufacturers were developing digital radios and in the summer of 2002 the first sub £100 receivers became available accelerating the take up of digital radio.

Surprisingly television has also helped the development of digital radio. Freeview in the UK includes access to digital radio stations hitherto only available on DAB. The significant take-up of Freeview has exposed new audience to these radio stations via their televisions set-top boxes and has become the second most effective transmission method for digital radio.

The “Digitally Enabled Universe” in the UK now stands at 60% and these numbers continue to grow especially as sales of digital radio sets are greater than those of analogue.

The latest UK RAJAR Listener Research shows the most successful digital only stations are continuing to increase audience.

The success and future of digital radio in the UK is best demonstrated with TV giant Channel 4’s successful acquisition of the second national digital commercial radio multiplex which is due on-air later this year.
Latest RAJAR figures show:

• 27.3% of adults own a digital radio at home
• 31.4% weekly reach for digital platforms (DAB/Freeview/Internet)
• 17.9% of all radio listening is done via digital platforms (DAB/Freeview/Internet)
Source: www.rajar.co.uk Q1 2008

Last year RAJAR figures also included interesting data on radio listening via digital television and the internet:

• 22.5% of adults listen to radio via digital tv at least once a week.
• 13.4% of adults have listen to radio on the internet at least once a week. Interestingly they’re mainly listening to UK national brands, not local or foreign stations.
• 9.2% of adults have listened to radio on their mobile phone.
Source: www.rajar.co.uk Q1 2008

Since 2003 listenership levels have exploded twelve-fold

with over 14million people now enjoying digital radio in the UK.

Early 2008 GCap announced they were pulling out of digital radio which really set the cat amongst the pidgeons. On closer examination GCap were making the move more in relation to a hostile takeover bid by Global Radio and their pulling out of digital really only affected 2 of their many digital stations. Incidentally, they also pulled out of 3 FM services but no-one screamed about that!

Since then GCap was indeed purchased by Global Radio and now have a more positive view on DAB. They have sold their Planet Rock brand and it continues on air to this day. Also since then, Bauer Radio have re-launched their Q Radio station putting it on DAB for the first time ever and NME have also launched their own new digital radio outlet.

This is all very fortunate for the Irish industry. At this early stage of development here, we can afford to sit back and learn from the mistakes made in the UK and not repeat them.

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