One hundred years after what is widely considered to have been the first audio radio broadcast, Dixons, the leading UK e-tailer of consumer electricals, is discontinuing the sale of analogue radios. The decision follows substantial growth in the sale of digital radios, and expansion in the number and range of digital transmitters. Digital radios are now outselling analogue radios by 30:1 at dixons.co.uk.
Dixons announced in December 2003 that digital radios were outselling analogue tuners for the first time ever, confirming then that the future of radio in the UK will be digital.
Other products on Dixons’ “endangered species” list include the personal CD player and the so-called “boom box”, reflecting the changes that the MP3 player and the iPod are making on the portable audio market.
The growth of the market for digital radio has been driven by improvements to the range, better availability of stock, new portable models and investment in new transmitters, according to Dixons. Dixons now offers digital radios for as little as £29.98 via its site, www.dixons.co.uk, which welcomes more than 1 million visitors a month. Original DAB receivers cost in the region of £2,000.
“The growth in demand for digital radios is further evidence that we’re living in the digital age,” said Nick Wilkinson, Group managing director for Dixons. “The snap, crackle and pop of the traditional wireless is rapidly being replaced with the crystal-clear sound of digital audio broadcasting.”
He added: “The traditional radio has been a huge part of home life in the UK, through good times and bad, over the last 100 years. Some of the most pivotal events in our history have been communicated to UK homes from analogue radio transmitters to wirelesses in homes around the UK. There is probably no other piece of technology that conjures such a powerful mental image as the old wireless perched on the mantelpiece with the family gathered around it.”
Today’s digital radios offer significant advantages over their analogue predecessors, including crisper sound quality, text-based services, pause and rewind functions on some models and a host of content not available to AM or FM listeners.
Dixons Tax Free airport stores and stores in the Republic of Ireland will continue to stock analogue radios.
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