In 2010 the BBC launched 30 new national digital radio transmitters around the UK, increasing the availability of digital radio for an additional three quarters of a million people and improving DAB coverage for over 8.5 million people in the country. This builds on the commitment Tim Davie, Director of BBC Audio and Music, made earlier this year to significantly improve DAB coverage in the UK in 2010/11.
In 2010 residents of the Rhondda Valley, Windermere, north Northamptonshire, Rochdale and Littleborough, the Sevenoaks Weald and north Kent and South Hams have been able to receive digital radio for the first time.
Scotland has seen a significant improvement in coverage for the BBC’s UK-wide digital radio services with transmissions starting in Oban, Fort William, throughout Dumfries and Galloway, and into the north-east of the nation with coverage now throughout Aberdeenshire.
Meanwhile, five new transmitters for Northern Ireland have improved coverage across the province, extending the network into Enniskillen, Ballymena, Coleraine, and Larne, as well as improving reception for a fifth of the population with a new transmitter in north Belfast. As a result, the coverage of these services has leapt from 75% to 85% of Northern Ireland – with further improvements to come in 2011.
The roll-out is not only adding new areas into the coverage of the network but also improving reception for existing listeners in certain areas. In 2010 reception has been improved for households in Cornwall, Plymouth and Dartmoor; Aberdeen; Suffolk and north Essex; Dundee; Dumbarton and Helensbrough; Belfast; Fife; and London.
The roll-out will continue in 2011, with new transmitters for Saffron Walden, east Devon, Sunderland and High Wycombe due on-air in the first few weeks of the year. The BBC remains on target to meet its aim of DAB serving 92% of the population by the end of 2011.
(Source: BBC Press Office)
on Jan 2nd, 2011 at 08:39
Hello There,
Increasing the reception footprint of DAB digital radio in the UK is near irrelevant to the lack of popularity of DAB in Britain.
When an upgrade is required for a car or a television set, the consumer will purchase a model as good as, or preferably better than the item being replaced.
So why upgrade a radio tuner with reasonable listening pleasure, to a radio waveband giving inferior listening pleasure with over compressed audio? YOU CANNOT UPGRADE A SYSTEM TO DOWNGRADE YOUR LISTENING PLEASURE!!! -It does not make sense..
The DAB industry in the UK has never grasped the audio quality nettle and by the year 2011, ”the penny will probably never drop” within the foreseeable future! As a result, FM should remain mainstream for national radio well beyond year 2015.
Regards..Willie
on Jan 2nd, 2011 at 14:47
Investing even more in DAB (with MPEG2 compression) is a real waste of money. When DAB+ (with more efficiency and better audio) will be a success in Europe, the Brits will find themselves in the same position as with the 405 line TV system.
Better flip to DAB+ now, when France and Germany also will do DAB+ this could be the new system.
However as I understand also France has a different system ?? (like in the old TV days with 819 lines) so the future of digital radio is bleak.
In this tiny country DAB+ is forced in by blackmailing the commercial stations to invest in DAB+ if they want their licenses renewed.
on Jan 2nd, 2011 at 16:32
I am suspicious about this move.
One argument for analogue closure is that when listenership to DAB becomes
the majority delivery method for listeners, analogue can close.
However I suspect that the argument might be twisted to saying that DAB now
*covers* the majority of listeners reception areas instead.
And will the programme contenet ever get better - no!
I’d rather listen to an HF radio, noise, pointless religious broadcast and biased
foreign news reports than any domestic tripe that passes for programming any day.