Welcome to the first in a regular monthly update on DAB digital radio from the DRDB. The Digital Radio Development Bureau is funded and supported by BBC, Digital One, EMAP Digital Radio, CE Digital, MXR, Capital Digital and Now-Digital. The DRDB's task is to ensure digital radio's wide accessibility and swift adoption in the UK with consistent and effective marketing.
We'll be bringing you news of product developments, multiplex and station launches, transmitter coverage, government and regulatory matters, retailer issues etc.
Product News
- The EVOKE-1 from PURE Digital went on sale at three London outlets on July 31 and sold out in three hours. Priced at £99, the stand-alone plug-in portable radio is the first high volume DAB digital radio to hit the mainstream market. Further stocks are expected across the UK in early September.
- The new Acoustic Solutions DAB hi-fi tuner is available to consumers from August 26. The SP110 retails from Argos and Richer Sounds at the lowest ever tuner price point of £129.99. www.acousticsolutions.co.uk
- A new tuner from PURE Digital goes on sale at the end of August. The DRX-701ES uses third generation chip technology to deliver improvements over its predecessor, the 601ES, winner of What Hi-Fi tuner of the year. The price drops by £100 to just £249. www.pure-digital.com
- Modular Technology has shipped its new PCI DAB digital radio card and stocks are expected in stores including Maplin Electroncis, Simply Radios, and Time Computers by the end of August. The card retails at under £100 and delivers interference free reception of DAB stations, programme information as scrolling text and a genre description of each radio station. It supports electronic programme guides for planning future listening and automatic recording in advance. Users can record programmes in MP3 format ready for transfer to a portable player or CD. www.digitalradio.tv
- Blaupunkt's Woodstock DAB 52 is the world´s first fully integrated dual band digital radio with MP3 technology. Outside a DAB coverage area, the unit automatically switches to FM frequency and then back to DAB when reception is available. The Woodstock plays CD ROMs in MP3 format and has a slot for multimedia cards (MMC). Reports from Germany suggest the Woodstock is selling at a rate of 1,000 units a week. www.blaupunkt.co.uk
Month on month the DAB digital radio market is showing encouraging growth. Currently units in the market stand at around 70,000 and that figure is growing at the rate of 1,000 a month, representing a value of £360,000 per month. In the nine months to May 2002 , the DAB digital radio market was worth more than £3 million.
In the past month, national press stories have reached more than eight million people with the latest developments in DAB digital radio.
New Services
- On August 16 the BBC launched 1Xtra, a new national DAB digital radio station dedicated to playing the best in contemporary black music for a young audience. The network went live with a five-hour set at 6pm and celebrated with live broadcasts from clubs around the UK through the night. With 65% population coverage, the BBC's newest national station can reach more than 30 million potential listeners aged 15 plus.
- Emap's dance station, Kiss, available on analogue radio in London, extends its reach across the country via GWR's Now Digital local multiplexes. The move gives Kiss a potential listening reach of 73% of UK population, that's more than 34 million adults.
- Now Digital launched its Bournemouth multiplex in August bringing seven services (soon to be nine) to the Dorset area. These include analogue simulcasts of local favourites 2CR, Classic Gold Digital, and The Wave, plus Kiss (see above) and digital only stations The Storm, Saga Radio, and SBN. BBC Solent and Passion for the Planet are expected to join the multiplex soon. www.now-digital.com/
- Regional multiplex operator MXR is promoting the new Modular Technology PCI card priced at £99 across its analogue partner stations in a two month campaign of live-reads, on air and giveaway competitions. MXR is also offering readers of both What Hi-Fi and Stuff (between them reaching nearly 128,000 people) the chance to win an EVOKE-1 and a Psion WaveFinder. A reader's offer in Radio Times (read by over 1 million people) for the EVOKE-1, and a WaveFinder giveaway in Pizza Express's magazine, Expresso, rounds up MXR's summer of DAB promotions.
- In early September, the DRDB launches a radio advertising campaign across more than 150 local analogue stations in support of the national roll-out of the EVOKE-1. The media value of such a campaign is in excess of £250,000.
Nearly 100 audiophiles who bought one of the special promotional £99 digital radios last Christmas took part in a three phase research project jointly carried out by the BBC and Digital One. On the issue of audio quality, they were asked the following question: "How satisfied are you with the sound quality of the £99 DAB digital radio?" They were offered a scale between "very dissatisfied" and "very satisfied".
- 94% were satisfied with the audio quality
- 48% were "very satisfied"
- 89% scored sound quality above 7 out of 9 on a scale of 1 to 9
- Nobody said they were "very dissatisfied"
- Only 1% scored audio quality below 5 out of 9
If you have any news you would like included in the next DRDB news bulletin, please email mandy@drdb.org
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Mandy Green
Press and Publicity Manager
DRDB
The Radiocentre
77 Shaftesbury Avenue
London W1D 5DU
020 7306 2636
07973 184995