Digital Radio Awareness Hits Record Levels
Almost 60% of the adult population in the UK are aware of DAB digital radio, with public awareness of the technology increasing by 16% year on year during January 2005, up from 43% in January 2004, according to new research from the Digital Radio Development Bureau.
The increasing penetration and consumer awareness of DAB radio was fuelled by a record number of digital radio sets sold in the UK over Christmas, with sales surpassing the DRDB’s previous expectations and soaring past the one million mark.
Commenting on the new research, Ian Dickens, DRDB chief executive said: “Following record sales of DAB digital radios in 2004, it’s not surprising that awareness has also gone up. Our goal is to sell 1.2 million radios in 2005, and an awareness level of nearly 60% is an encouraging starting point for the year.”
Recent listening data from radio ratings body RAJAR confirms that the public are warming to new radio technologies, and revealed that 29.7% of the adult population claim to have listened to digital radio through their TV, while an unprecedented 10.8% claim to have listened to a UK national station via the internet in December, up 30.1% year on year.
Recent figures released by the World DAB Forum put the number of digital radio sets in British homes at the end of 2004 at 1.2 million, breaking records and surpassing expectations (see Digital Radio Penetration Hits Record Level).
The data confirms the DRDB’s five year forecast, predicting a massive boom in popularity for the DAB digital radio industry, with penetration estimated to rise by a staggering 1200% from around one million sets currently in British homes to 13 million by 2008.
The DRDB’s Five-Year DAB Digital Radio Forecast predicts that around 29% of British homes will posses a digital radio by 2008.
DRDB: 020 7306 2630 www.drdb.org
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