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5 Million Cars With DAB on the Road in the UK

Next generation of in-car digital radio adaptors are about to launch

OSLO�It was announced yesterday byDigital Radio UK, at an international conference in Norway, that there are 5 million cars now on the road in the UK with digital radios, and that the next generation of in-car digital radio adaptors are about to launch.

The release of recent data from CAP/SMMT for May 2015 which shows that the UK new car market continues to grow (+5.7 percent for 2015) and that 2.5 million cars have been sold in the last year with the majority (60 percent) having digital radios outfitted as standard equipment.

These 5 million cars represent 15.4 percent of the total estimated cars on the road (32.5 million). This matches with the radio listening data released for Q1 2015 by industry body RAJAR which estimates that the total digital listening in-car is 16 percent.

In the last 5 years the percentage of new cars with digital radio as standard has increased from 5 percent in March 2010 to 65 percent in March 2015. The top ten best-selling cars have digital radio fitted as standard equipment on some or all models.

The key factor behind the widespread adoption of digital radio in new UK cars has been investment in new digital radio transmitters that have expanded national BBC DAB coverage to 97 percent and local DAB coverage to 91 percent (comparable with commercial radio FM coverage).� An additional factor for vehicle manufacturers has been the increase in digital listening to nearly 40 percent (39.6 percent) with the success of BBC and commercial digital-only stations and the announcement of the launch of 15 digital stations on the D2 National network in Q1 2016.

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