Commercial Radio Australia Reports Continued DAB+ Growth

Sep 2, 2014 2:29 PM, Doug Irwin, CPBE AMD DRB

SYDNEY�Commercial Radio Australia today released its 2014 Digital Radio Report, showing that nearly 98,000 new vehicles have been sold with DAB+ digital radio, and digital radio listening is at an all-time high, with almost 2.8 million people tuning in each week in the five metropolitan capital cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, and Perth. (This represents 21.4% of radio listening in Australia.)

The report shows continuing growth of digital radio in vehicles, with 16 different Australian vehicle brands now offering DAB+ as either standard or an option. The number of vehicle brands has doubled in Australia since 2013, and progress is expected to continue with 26 vehicle manufacturers internationally offering DAB+.

In the five years since the launch of DAB+ digital radio in metropolitan Australia, nearly 1.7 million (1.677 million) digital radio devices have been sold, and when combined with the 100,000 vehicles with DAB+ and the 2.8 million people listening each week, digital radio household penetration to has been estimated at 23.3%. CRA also reports that nearly 1.2 million more people listen to DAB+ radio than streaming radio.