Six in ten have DAB at home, but cars mainly analogue says report

A new report reveals that six in ten (61%) of UK adults has a DAB digital radio at home. However, for motorists who listen to the radio on the move analogue is the primary format. The proportion of new cars with DAB digital radio has reached 87.5%.

Nine in ten UK adults listen to the radio every week. Almost half of the time spent listening to the radio is through a digital platform at 48.8%. This is one of the measures used by the Government to assess whether to implement a timetable for digital radio switchover.

The lowest share of digital listening is in Northern Ireland, where less than a third of hours are listened to digitally. The highest share is in the county of Berkshire in England at 60%.

BBC Radio 6 Music is the most popular digital-only BBC station with 2.4 million listeners, while Kisstory is the highest ranked digital-only commercial station with 1.8 million listeners. A majority of hours spent listening to BBC Radio 5 live are through a digital platform, rather than the 909 and 693AM analogue frequencies.

The number of DAB digital radios sold in the last year has fallen again, down to 1.5 million sets. This compares to 2.6 million analogue radios sold in the same period.

Fifteen percent of those without a DAB set said they were likely to buy one in the next year. Nearly half said it was very unlikely or would not buy a DAB radio in the next year, whilst 22% didn’t know if they would purchase one. Six in ten of those who responded they would be unlikely to buy a DAB set said they had no need for the service.

Clear and high-quality sound is the most common experience among digital radio listeners, followed by a wider range of stations. Additional programme information and ease-of-use were cited by a third of listeners.

Changes in coverage

The report by media regulator Ofcom also reveals the current level of digital radio coverage in the UK. National BBC stations are available digitally to 97.4% of UK homes and 87.4% of UK major roads.

Commercial radio stations on the UK’s original network of transmitters, such as Classic FM and Capital XTRA, reach 91.7% of UK homes and 80% of major roads. The new network of national commercial radio transmitters, home to Planet Rock and talkRADIO, reaches 77% of homes and 66.9% of major roads.

The difference in coverage between the two networks helps to explain why some listeners find they no longer receive stations which have moved from one set of transmitters to the other.

Household DAB digital radio take-up has reached 61% in 2017 – up 4% on last year. Almost three quarters of digital listening is via DAB digital radio, with 16.3% of digital listening done online.

The report also reveals that in total 337 radio stations broadcast on DAB in the UK. Of these 11 are national BBC services and 31 are national commercial radio stations. Some 264 broadcast in England, 76 in Scotland, 62 in Wales and 53 in Northern Ireland.