Digital radio in the United Kingdom - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, the roll-out of digital radio is proceeding since test transmissions were started by the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

in 1990. The UK currently has the world's biggest digital radio

Digital radio

Digital radio has several meanings:1. Today the most common meaning is digital radio broadcasting technologies, such as the digital audio broadcasting system, also known as Eureka 147. In these systems, the analog audio signal is digitized into zeros and ones, compressed using formats such as...

network, with 103 transmitters, two national DAB

Digital audio broadcasting

Digital Audio Broadcasting is a digital radio technology for broadcasting radio stations, used in several countries, particularly in Europe. As of 2006, approximately 1,000 stations worldwide broadcast in the DAB format....

ensembles

DAB ensemble

DAB ensembles are groups of Digital audio broadcasting broadcasters transmitting multiple digital radio channels on a single radio transmission....

and 48 local and regional DAB ensembles broadcasting over 250 commercial and 34 BBC radio station

Radio station

Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...

s across the UK. In the capital, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

there are already more than 51 different digital stations available. In addition to DAB, radio stations are also broadcast on digital television

Digital television

Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...

platforms, Digital Radio Mondiale

Digital Radio Mondiale

Digital Radio Mondiale is a set of digital audio broadcasting technologies designed to work over the bands currently used for AM broadcasting, particularly shortwave...

on mediumwave

Mediumwave

Medium wave is the part of the medium frequency radio band used mainly for AM radio broadcasting. For Europe the MW band ranges from 526.5 kHz to 1606.5 kHz...

and shortwave

Shortwave

Shortwave radio refers to the upper MF and all of the HF portion of the radio spectrum, between 1,800–30,000 kHz. Shortwave radio received its name because the wavelengths in this band are shorter than 200 m which marked the original upper limit of the medium frequency band first used...

frequencies

Frequency

Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit time. It is also referred to as temporal frequency.The period is the duration of one cycle in a repeating event, so the period is the reciprocal of the frequency...

as well as internet radio

Internet radio

Internet radio is an audio service transmitted via the Internet...

in the UK. Digital radio ensemble operators and stations need a broadcasting licence from the UK's media regulator Ofcom

Ofcom

Ofcom is the government-approved regulatory authority for the broadcasting and telecommunications industries in the United Kingdom. Ofcom was initially established by the Office of Communications Act 2002. It received its full authority from the Communications Act 2003...

to broadcast.

Digital radio in the United Kingdom is being promoted by radio stations and the broadcasting industry on the premise that it provides a wider choice of radio stations, is easier to use, and is resistant to the interference

Interference (communication)

In communications and electronics, especially in telecommunications, interference is anything which alters, modifies, or disrupts a signal as it travels along a channel between a source and a receiver. The term typically refers to the addition of unwanted signals to a useful signal...

which other broadcast media are susceptible to. However, the price paid for the extra number of stations is that the audio quality on DAB is lower than on FM

FM broadcasting

FM broadcasting is a broadcasting technology pioneered by Edwin Howard Armstrong which uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio. The term "FM band" describes the "frequency band in which FM is used for broadcasting"...

. Also some areas of the country are not presently covered by DAB; the BBC

BBC

says that it may not provide coverage to the final 10% of the population, and may use DRM

Digital Radio Mondiale

Digital Radio Mondiale is a set of digital audio broadcasting technologies designed to work over the bands currently used for AM broadcasting, particularly shortwave...

instead. In 2011, Ofcom published a consultation with the intent to push DAB coverage across the United Kingdom up to the same level as enjoyed by FM broadcasting in the United Kingdom

FM broadcasting in the UK

FM broadcasting began in the United Kingdom on May 2, 1955 when the BBC started an FM service broadcasting the Light Programme, the Third Programme and the Home Service to the south east of England. There are now over 40 BBC and over 250 commercial FM stations broadcasting in the UK.-BBC :The BBC...

. The United Kingdom Government intends to migrate the vast majority of AM and FM analogue services to digital in 2015, subject to targets being met for coverage and listening figures for digital radio. Although minister

Minister (government)

A minister is a politician who holds significant public office in a national or regional government. Senior ministers are members of the cabinet....

s are currently considering pushing the switchover back to 2017 at the earliest.

In the UK, 26.5% of all radio listening hours were through digital platforms, with DAB making up for the majority of digital radio listening, and 38.2% of UK households claim to have access to a DAB radio set.

Digital Audio Broadcasting

Experimental transmissions of the DAB Eureka 147 standard from the Crystal Palace transmitting station by the BBC started in 1990 with permanent transmissions covering London in September 1995. With the expansion of its single-frequency network

Single-frequency network

A single-frequency network or SFN is a broadcast network where several transmitters simultaneously send the same signal over the same frequency channel.-Overview:...

in the spring of 1998, the BBC national ensemble was available to 65% of the UK population by 2001 and to 85% by 2004.

The Broadcasting Act of 1996 allowed the introduction of national, regional and local commercial ensembles in the United Kingdom.

The first national ensemble licence for DAB from the Radio Authority

Ofcom

was advertised in 1998 and one applicant applied for the licence. The licence was awarded to the GWR Group and NTL Broadcast, who since the launch were renamed Arqiva

Arqiva

Arqiva is a telecommunications company which provides infrastructure and broadcast transmission facilities in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. The present company, with headquarters located at Crawley Court in the village of Crawley, Hampshire, was formed by National Grid Wireless...

. The two companies formed the Digital One

Digital One

Digital One is a national commercial digital radio multiplex in the United Kingdom, owned by Arqiva. , the multiplex covers more than 90% of the populationfrom a total of 137 transmitters...

ensemble, which began broadcasting on 15 November 1999. The Digital One ensemble has grown and is currently available to over 90% of the UK population although a Ofcom report into Digital Radio in 2011 puts robust household coverage at 84.6% of the UK.

Growth and benefits of DAB in the UK

In the United Kingdom, the uptake of DAB has increased since the launch of the BBC national DAB ensemble in 1995. Lower prices, new radio stations and marketing have increased the uptake of DAB radio in the UK. Digital radios were first sold as car radios in 1997, priced around £800, with hi-fi tuners costing up to £2,000 being released two years later. In 2001, Digital One invested in Frontier Silicon to produce a new processing chip which would allow cheaper portable radios to be produced. Roberts Radio

Roberts Radio

Roberts is a consumer electronics limited company based in Mexborough, South Yorkshire, England. It has been producing radios for over 80 years. Initially the company only traded in the United Kingdom, but now exports worldwide...

, Goodmans

Goodmans

For the Canadian law firm, see Goodmans LLPGoodmans is a British consumer electronics company which is part of Harvard International plc....

and in 2002, Pure Digital

Pure Digital

PURE is a British consumer electronics company, based in Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, founded in 2002. Pure is a division of another Hertfordshire-based company, Imagination Technologies, which primarily builds processors and graphics chips....

's award winning Evoke series of radios broke the £100 price barrier, and DAB take up has increased since. As the result of the increase of uptake of DAB, electrical retailer Dixons announced in 2006 that it would discontinue selling analogue radios, though Dixons still continues to stock and sell analogue radios, and has given no indication of a timetable, as of August 2011.

The BBC and other DAB broadcasters have been encouraging DAB take up by promoting a number of features which are either new or improve upon former technology in their sales literature. The benefit of DAB is that due to the use of multiplexing technology and encoding

Encoder

An encoder is a device, circuit, transducer, software program, algorithm or person that converts information from one format or code to another, for the purposes of standardization, speed, secrecy, security, or saving space by shrinking size.-Media:...

technology, broadcasters including the BBC and EMAP have been able to launch exclusive digital radio stations alongside their existing analogue radio stations. Broadcasters also state that DAB offers better reception, without the problems of interference that are more noticeable through analogue radio. DAB radios also come with features such as station lists, so listeners do not need to retune their receivers, as well as scrolling text, providing information such as breaking news, travel information or the latest track information.

DAB has also been marketed as having two major advantages over analogue radio broadcasting in that using MPEG-1 Audio Layer II

MPEG-1 Audio Layer II

MPEG-1 Audio Layer II or MPEG-2 Audio Layer II is a lossy audio compression format defined by ISO/IEC 11172-3 alongside MPEG-1 Audio Layer I and MPEG-1 Audio Layer III...

lossy audio compression technology, parts of the audio spectrum that cannot be heard by humans are discarded, meaning less data needs to be sent over the air. This, as well as multiplexing

Multiplexing

The multiplexed signal is transmitted over a communication channel, which may be a physical transmission medium. The multiplexing divides the capacity of the low-level communication channel into several higher-level logical channels, one for each message signal or data stream to be transferred...

technology, allows a number of channels to be broadcast together on one frequency as opposed to one channel for analogue radio broadcasts.

National, local and regional DAB ensembles use the same frequency for the area they cover. Using a single-frequency network

Single-frequency network

A single-frequency network or SFN is a broadcast network where several transmitters simultaneously send the same signal over the same frequency channel.-Overview:...

, an ensemble broadcasting a number of stations can cover the same area as a number of FM frequencies which would be required to cover the same area for one station. The BBC carried out successful tests of a single-frequency network in London before launching its national DAB ensemble.

Criticisms of DAB in the UK

DAB technically provides low audio quality in the UK due to 98% of stereo stations using a bit rate level of 128 kbit/s with the MP2

MPEG-1 Audio Layer II

MPEG-1 Audio Layer II or MPEG-2 Audio Layer II is a lossy audio compression format defined by ISO/IEC 11172-3 alongside MPEG-1 Audio Layer I and MPEG-1 Audio Layer III...

audio codec, which provides much poorer sound quality than FM

FM broadcasting

-quality (assuming good reception on both DAB and FM). A bit rate of 256 kbit/s would be required to achieve a 'CD quality' signal. Also, a large and growing number of music stations are transmitting in mono. Indeed, the bit rate

Bit rate

In telecommunications and computing, bit rate is the number of bits that are conveyed or processed per unit of time....

s used by the radio stations on other digital platforms, such as cable, terrestrial and satellite are usually higher than on DAB, so the audio quality is also higher. For example, all of the BBC

BBC

stations use higher bit rates on the digital TV platforms than on DAB apart from the BBC World Service

BBC World Service

The BBC World Service is the world's largest international broadcaster, broadcasting in 27 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays...

on Freeview. On the other hand, an Ofcom

Ofcom

survey, which was undertaken due to many consultation responses citing poor DAB quality, found that 94% of DAB listeners thought DAB was at least as good as FM.

Ofcom estimates that even after extra spectrum

Spectrum

A spectrum is a condition that is not limited to a specific set of values but can vary infinitely within a continuum. The word saw its first scientific use within the field of optics to describe the rainbow of colors in visible light when separated using a prism; it has since been applied by...

has been allocated to DAB, around 90 local radio stations will be unable to transmit on DAB, either because there is no space for them on a local DAB multiplex, or because they cannot afford the high transmission costs of DAB that the multiplex operators are charging. Ofcom announced in 2005 that it regarded Digital Radio Mondiale

Digital Radio Mondiale

Digital Radio Mondiale is a set of digital audio broadcasting technologies designed to work over the bands currently used for AM broadcasting, particularly shortwave...

(DRM) as an option for local stations unable to secure carriage or unable to pay the high transmission costs of DAB.

On 30 January 2008, a report in the Daily Mail

Daily Mail

The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...

claimed that there were not enough DAB radios being sold to support the service for the future and that people were favouring their traditional analogue radios over DAB. It also reported that unless sales started to rise, DAB in the UK could follow the same fate as Betamax Video Cassettes did in the 1980s. In January 2009, the Digital Radio Development Bureau announced that fewer DAB radio sets were sold in Christmas 2008 than in the previous year, although the group states that customer confidence in DAB remains high.

On 24 January 2009, Ofcom allowed electrical retailers to be granted a licence to rebroadcast DAB signals within their stores to demonstrate DAB radio sets within their stores. The United Kingdom consumer charity, Which?

Which?

Which? is a product-testing and consumer campaigning charity with a magazine, website and various other services run by Which? Ltd ....

warned that consumers who could not get an adequate DAB signal could be misled by the in-store sets. The Digital Radio Development Bureau replied to the Which? report stating that stores contain a steel structure which produce a faraday cage

Faraday cage

A Faraday cage or Faraday shield is an enclosure formed by conducting material or by a mesh of such material. Such an enclosure blocks out external static and non-static electric fields...

effect where DAB signals are blocked out. The DRDB recommended that consumers should check DAB coverage online with their postcode

Postal code

A postal code is a series of letters and/or digits appended to a postal address for the purpose of sorting mail. Once postal codes were introduced, other applications became possible.In February 2005, 117 of the 190 member countries of the Universal Postal Union had postal code systems...

before purchasing a DAB radio to avoid disappointment.

On 24 November 2010, a number of commercial radio operators refused to run an advertisement promoting DAB, one operator stating that it would be "fundamentally immoral and dishonest" until DAB coverage matches that of FM. Commercial radio executives have argued that the BBC should pick up the majority of the cost of expanding the DAB network across the United Kingdom.

GCap

On 11 February 2008 GCap Media chief executive Fru Hazlitt presented a new strategy for GCap to fend off a takeover bid from Global Radio

Global Radio

Global Radio UK Ltd. is a British commercial radio company, the largest in the country following acquisitions of Chrysalis Radio and GCap Media.The company's Chief Executive Officer is Stephen Miron, while the Group Chairman is Charles Allen...

. The strategy for DAB included the closure of national DAB stations Planet Rock and theJazz

TheJazz

theJazz was a British commercial jazz digital radio station. The station was run by GCap Media and launched on Christmas Day 2006. originally as a non-stop jazz station on the Digital One DAB ensemble, Sky Digital, Virgin Media and the Internet....

on 31 March 2008 as well as the disposal of Digital One

Digital One

Digital One is a national commercial digital radio multiplex in the United Kingdom, owned by Arqiva. , the multiplex covers more than 90% of the populationfrom a total of 137 transmitters...

to Arqiva

Arqiva

for £1. Hazlitt also said that the DAB platform in the UK was not economically viable and that growth in digital radio would come from FM and Internet Radio, announcing a deal with Apple to stream GCap stations on the iPod touch

IPod touch

The iPod Touch is a portable media player, personal digital assistant, handheld game console, and Wi-Fi mobile device designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The iPod Touch adds the multi-touch graphical user interface to the iPod line...

and iPhone

IPhone

The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...

on the same day.

The takeover of GCap by Global Radio has led to them keeping Digital One and looking to take a stake in Channel 4's second national commercial multiplex.

The Digital Radio Development Bureau and the 4 Digital Group

4 Digital Group

4 Digital Group was a media consortium in the United Kingdom. The group won the licence to operate the second national DAB radio multiplex, as advertised by Ofcom in December 2006. The consortium, led by Channel 4 Radio, is a combination of the existing commercial radio operators and brands new to...

defended DAB by stating that DAB was showing signs of growth and would become more attractive to consumers and broadcasters. The BBC

BBC

and 4 Digital Group issued a joint statement on 12 February 2008 stating their commitment to DAB.

4 Digital Group

On 10 October 2008, Channel 4

Channel 4

Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

announced that it would pull out of the 4 Digital Group consortium, that it would not launch services on the second national multiplex, and that it would axe its three digital radio services, E4 Radio, Channel 4 Radio and Pure 4. Channel 4 chief executive Andy Duncan admitted that ending Channel 4's foray into digital radio could cost the corporation £9 million.

DAB frequency plan

DAB radio stations in the United Kingdom are broadcast on a number of frequency blocks on VHF Band III

Band III

Band III is the name of a radio frequency range within the very high frequency part of the electromagnetic spectrum.Band III ranges from 174 to 230 MHz, and it is primarily used for radio and television broadcasting...

. The original plan devised in Wiesbaden

Wiesbaden

Wiesbaden is a city in southwest Germany and the capital of the federal state of Hesse. It has about 275,400 inhabitants, plus approximately 10,000 United States citizens...

for the framework of DAB in Europe was to allocate frequency blocks 11B to 12D for UK DAB broadcasting. However, as part of its Review of Radio, Ofcom has expanded the frequency allocations for DAB and has advertised local and a national ensemble licence on blocks outside the original Wiesbaden plan on 10B to 10D and 11A. Block 5A has also been reserved for the launch of local ensembles.

Block	Frequency	England and Wales	Scotland	Northern Ireland
5A	174.928 MHz	Local ensembles	None	None
10B	211.648 MHz	Local ensembles	None	None
10C	213.360 MHz	Local ensembles	None	None
10D	215.072 MHz	Local ensembles	None	None
11A	216.928 MHz	Digital Two	Digital Two	Digital Two
11B	218.640 MHz	Local ensembles	Local ensembles	None
11C	220.352 MHz	Local ensembles	Local ensembles	None
11D	222.064 MHz	Digital One ensemble	Local and regional ensembles	None
12A	223.936 MHz	Local and regional ensembles (except West Wales)	Digital One ensemble	None
12B	225.648 MHz	BBC national DAB ensemble	BBC national DAB ensemble	BBC national DAB ensemble
12C	227.360 MHz	Local and regional ensembles (except the south coast)	Local and regional ensembles	None
12D	229.072 MHz	Local ensembles (except the south coast)	Local ensembles	Local ensembles

Under a Maastricht plan in 2002, the UK also has L band

L band

L band refers to four different bands of the electromagnetic spectrum: 40 to 60 GHz , 1 to 2 GHz , 1565 nm to 1625 nm , and around 3.5 micrometres .-NATO L band:...

allocations for local terrestrial DAB, though there are no plans to broadcast any digital radio stations on L band. Ofcom auctioned spectrum in L band in 2008 for a number of uses, including terrestrial digital radio. On 16 May 2008, Ofcom declared that Qualcomm

Qualcomm

Qualcomm is an American global telecommunication corporation that designs, manufactures and markets digital wireless telecommunications products and services based on its code division multiple access technology and other technologies. Headquartered in San Diego, CA, USA...

UK Spectrum Ltd had won the auction of L band frequencies in the UK.

BBC National DAB

The BBC's national DAB ensemble broadcasts on frequency block 12B (225.648 MHz

Hertz

The hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications....

) across the United Kingdom, with coverage currently at 92.2%. The multiplex is owned and operated by the BBC and is transmitted from a number of transmitter sites across the country. The BBC's national multiplex carries only BBC national radio station

Radio station

s. Local BBC radio

BBC Local Radio

BBC Local Radio is the BBC's regional radio service for England and the Channel Islands, consisting of 40 stations. They cover a variety of areas with some serving a city and surrounding areas, for example BBC Radio Manchester; a county, for example BBC Radio Norfolk; an administrative region for...

stations are carried on the relevant local DAB ensemble where commercial DAB licences are operating.

Commercial DAB multiplexes

There are a number of commercial DAB multiplexes operators in the UK who run 48 local and regional DAB multiplexes across the United Kingdom. operators include the national operator, Digital One

Digital One

Digital One is a national commercial digital radio multiplex in the United Kingdom, owned by Arqiva. , the multiplex covers more than 90% of the populationfrom a total of 137 transmitters...

, regional operator MXR and local multiplexes operators including NOW Digital, Bauer Media Group, UTV

UTV

UTV is a television channel based in the UK region of Northern Ireland. The channel is the Channel 3 or Independent Television licensee for Northern Ireland and is operated by UTV Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of UTV Media.- Terrestrial :* Analogue: Normally tuned to 3 * Freeview : 3...

, Switch Digital and MuxCo. Local and regional ensembles cover 66.2% of the UK.

DAB+

DAB+, a new digital radio standard using the HE-AAC

HE-AAC

High-Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding is a lossy data compression scheme for digital audio defined as a MPEG-4 Audio profile in ISO/IEC 14496-3. It is an extension of Low Complexity AAC optimized for low-bitrate applications such as streaming audio...

encoding standard and announced by the WorldDAB organisation in 2006, is being considered for digital radio broadcasting in the UK. HE-AAC encoding is more efficient than the MPEG-2 Layer II encoding standard currently used for DAB in the UK. DAB+ will either allow stations to broadcast at higher sound quality than currently possible with DAB, or allow more stations at the same quality currently broadcast on an ensemble.

The Digital Radio Development Bureau released a press statement

News release

A press release, news release, media release, press statement or video release is a written or recorded communication directed at members of the news media for the purpose of announcing something ostensibly newsworthy...

in January 2007 in which they admitted that DAB+ will be used in the UK in future. Ofcom have said that the UK will switch to DAB+, but not until the vast majority of radio sets can work with DAB+. The current chief executive of the DRDB, Tony Moretta, indicated that DAB+ was a "red herring" and may not be introduced in the UK for the foreseeable future due to the growing number of digital radio sets currently being sold and used in the future which cannot decode HE-AAC and therefore access DAB+ stations. Moretta also cited greater expense for broadcasters and overall satisfaction with the current audio quality of DAB stations of which a move to DAB+ would only benefit a small number of audiophile

Audiophile

An audiophile is a person who enjoys listening to recorded music, usually in a home. Some audiophiles are more interested in collecting and listening to music, while others are more interested in collecting and listening to audio components, whose "sound quality" they consider as important as the...

s as other reasons.

The 4Digital Group, led by Channel 4

Channel 4

, who were originally awarded the licence to operate the new national DAB

Digital audio broadcasting

multiplex, had planned to launch a podcast

Podcast

A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...

service using the DAB+ format.

Digital terrestrial television

Digital radio on the digital terrestrial platform started on 30 October 2002 with the launch of the BBC's digital only radio services, BBC 1Xtra, BBC Five Live Sports Extra

BBC Five Live Sports Extra

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra is an additional digital radio service provided by the BBC via DAB Digital Radio and the digital satellite, digital terrestrial, IPTV and digital cable television services in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. It is not available via analogue radio...

, BBC 6 Music

BBC 6 Music

BBC 6 Music is one of the BBC's digital radio stations, was launched on 11 March 2002 and originally codenamed Network Y. It was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years....

, BBC 7

BBC 7

BBC Radio 4 Extra, formerly known as BBC 7 and BBC Radio 7, is a British digital radio station broadcasting comedy, drama, and children's programming nationally 24 hours a day. It is the principal broadcasting outlet for the BBC's archive of spoken-word entertainment...

and the BBC Asian Network

BBC Asian Network

BBC Asian Network is a British radio station serving those originating from and around the Indian subcontinent. The music and news comes out of the main urban areas where there are significant communities with these backgrounds. The station has production centres in Birmingham, Leicester and London...

as well as existing stations BBC Radio Five Live

BBC Radio Five Live

BBC Radio 5 Live is the BBC's national radio service that specialises in live BBC News, phone-ins, and sports commentaries...

and the BBC World Service

BBC World Service

. All the stations broadcast on the BBC's multiplex

Multiplex (TV)

A multiplex or mux is a group of TV channels that are mixed together for broadcast over a digital TV channel and separated out again by the receiver...

B.

On the same day EMAP Radio (now owned by Bauer Radio) launched three radio stations, Smash Hits

Smash Hits

Smash Hits was a pop music based magazine, aimed at teenagers and young adults and originally published in the United Kingdom by EMAP. It ran from 1978 to 2006 and was issued fortnightly for most of that time...

, Kerrang!

Kerrang!

Kerrang! is a UK-based magazine devoted to rock music published by Bauer Media Group. It was first published on June 6, 1981 as a one-off supplement in the Sounds newspaper...

and Kiss

Kiss 100 London

Kiss is a UK radio station broadcasting on FM and Digital Radio, specialising in hip hop, R&B, urban and electronic dance music. It also broadcasts on DAB Digital Radio around the UK & nationally on Freeview, Sky and TalkTalk TV...

. Two other commercial radio

Commercial broadcasting

Commercial broadcasting is the broadcasting of television programs and radio programming by privately owned corporate media, as opposed to state sponsorship...

stations also launched, oneword

Oneword

Oneword Radio was a British commercial digital radio station featuring books, drama, comedy, children's programming, and discussion. The station was available in the UK via digital radio and digital television and was streamed on the internet 24 hours a day worldwide...

and 102.2 Jazz FM

102.2 Jazz FM

102.2 Jazz FM was a local jazz and soul music station for London run by GMG Radio. The station was based and broadcast from Castlereagh Street in London to around 15.5 million people within the broadcasting area...

.

The BBC later launched BBC Radio 1

BBC Radio 1

BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...

, Radio 2

BBC Radio 2

BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...

, Radio 3

BBC Radio 3

BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...

and Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...

on multiplex A on 14 February 2003. These channels later moved to Multiplex 1 on 3 October 2007.

Currently, the digital terrestrial platform has twenty seven radio stations broadcasting from broadcasters including the BBC, Bauer Radio, GMG Radio

GMG Radio

GMG Radio is the radio division of the Guardian Media Group. The group is based in Laser House, Salford Quays in Greater Manchester. The advertising division is in Old Trafford, Manchester. John Myers was the Chief Executive Officer, his deputy replaced him in April 2009...

and Absolute Radio.

Digital satellite

Radio stations broadcasting via Satellite

Satellite

In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....

to the United Kingdom usually use the SES Astra

SES Astra

Astra is the name for the geostationary communication satellites, both individually and as a group, which are owned and operated by SES S.A., a global satellite operator based in Betzdorf, in eastern Luxembourg. The name is sometimes also used to describe the channels broadcasting from these...

series of satellites at 28.2° east

Astra 28.2°E

Astra 28.2°E is the name for the group of Astra communications satellites co-located at the 28.2° East position in the Clarke Belt that are owned and operated by SES based in Betzdorf, Luxembourg...

or the Eutelsat

Eutelsat

Eutelsat S.A. is a French-based satellite provider. Providing coverage over the entire European continent, as well as the Middle East, Africa, India and significant parts of Asia and the Americas, it is one of the world's three leading satellite operators in terms of revenues.Eutelsat’s satellites...

Eurobird 1

Eurobird 1 is a Eutelsat operated Eurobird satellite, used primarily for digital television. It is located at 28.5° east in the Clarke Belt, just within the range of most satellite dishes pointed at SES Astra's Astra 2A, 2B and 2D at 28.2° east...

satellite at 28.5° east. Radio stations broadcast free-to-air

Free-to-air

Free-to-air describes television and radio services broadcast in clear form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscription or one-off fee...

via the Sky Digital

Sky Digital (UK & Ireland)

Sky is the brand name for British Sky Broadcasting's digital satellite television and radio service, transmitted from SES Astra satellites located at 28.2° east and Eutelsat's Eurobird 1 satellite at 28.5°E. The service was originally launched as Sky Digital, distinguishing it from the original...

, Freesat from Sky

Freesat from Sky

Freesat from Sky is a British satellite television service from BSkyB. It offers over 240 free-to-air channels and 12 free-to-view encrypted channels...

platforms and any DVB-S

DVB-S

DVB-S is an abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting — Satellite; it is the original Digital Video Broadcasting forward error coding and demodulation standard for satellite television and dates from 1994, in its first release, while development lasted from 1993 to 1997...

compliant set-top box

Set-top box

A set-top box or set-top unit is an information appliance device that generally contains a tuner and connects to a television set and an external source of signal, turning the signal into content which is then displayed on the television screen or other display device.-History:Before the...

. The Freesat

Freesat

Freesat is a free-to-air digital satellite television joint venture between the BBC and ITV plc, serving the United Kingdom. The service was formed as a memorandum in 2007 and has been marketed since 6 May 2008...

platform has all the BBC's national and regional digital radio stations as well as BBC London 94.9

BBC London 94.9

BBC London 94.9 is London's BBC Local Radio station, and part of BBC London. Broadcasting across Greater London and beyond on 94.9 FM, DAB, Virgin Media Channel 930, Sky Channel 0152 and also online...

from the launch on 6 May 2008 on the EPG.

WorldSpace

WorldSpace

1worldspace, formerly known as 'WorldSpace', is a currently defunct satellite radio network that provided service to over 170,000 subscribers in eastern and southern Africa, the Middle East, and much of Asia with 96% coming from India...

was planning a subscription

Subscription business model

The subscription business model is a business model where a customer must pay a subscription price to have access to the product/service. The model was pioneered by magazines and newspapers, but is now used by many businesses and websites....

based digital radio satellite service on the upper frequencies of the L band, if it had secured the frequencies from the Ofcom auction of L band frequencies in 2008. However, Qualcomm beat WorldSpace in securing the L band frequencies in the Ofcom auction process.

Ondas Media plan to launch a subscription satellite service across twenty seven European countries including the UK in 2012, signing up car manufacturers such as BMW

BMW

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company founded in 1916. It also owns and produces the Mini marque, and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. BMW produces motorcycles under BMW Motorrad and Husqvarna brands...

and Nissan as well as doing a deal with UK jazz station, Jazz FM to provide original content on the service.

Digital cable television

A number of digital radio stations also broadcast through digital cable

Digital cable

Digital cable is a generic term for any type of cable television distribution using digital video compression or distribution. The technology was originally developed by Motorola.-Background:...

platforms, including Virgin Media

Virgin Media

Virgin Media Inc. is a company which provides fixed and mobile telephone, television and broadband internet services to businesses and consumers in the United Kingdom...

and WightCable

WightCable

Wight Cable 2005 Ltd is the only provider of commercial and residential cable television services on the Isle of Wight. They also provide telephone and broadband internet services....

Internet radio

In the United Kingdom, over 350 of the UK's radio stations also stream

Streaming media

Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a streaming provider.The term "presented" is used in this article in a general sense that includes audio or video playback. The name refers to the delivery method of the medium rather...

their stations online, not including Restricted Service Licence

Restricted Service Licence

A UK Restricted Service Licence , is typically granted to radio stations and television stations broadcasting within the UK to serve a local community or a special event...

d radio stations, Hospital radio

Hospital radio

Hospital radio is a form of audio broadcasting produced specifically for the in-patients of hospitals. It is primarily found in the United Kingdom.-History:...

stations and stations who solely broadcast online. RAJAR figures taken between April and May in 2008 showed that 14.5 million people have listened to radio online with 9.4 million people listening every week. As well as listening through a media player on a computer

Computer

A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...

, a number of British firms, including BT Group

BT Group

BT Group plc is a global telecommunications services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is one of the largest telecommunications services companies in the world and has operations in more than 170 countries. Through its BT Global Services division it is a major supplier of...

, Reciva, Pure Digital

Pure Digital

, Roberts Radio

Roberts Radio

, Dixons and Acoustic Energy have brought out Internet radio device

Internet radio device

An Internet radio device, also called network music player is a hardware device that is capable of receiving and playing streamed media from either Internet radio stations or a home network.-Background:...

s which use the Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi or Wifi, is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices. A device enabled with Wi-Fi, such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, or digital audio player, can connect to the Internet via a wireless network access point. An access point has a range of about 20...

signal from a router to stream Internet radio stations within range of a Wi-Fi router. Apple and GCap Media made a deal in February 2008 for GCap stations to be broadcast through iPhone and iPod touch devices.

In 2006, the Phonographic Performance Limited

Phonographic Performance Limited

PPL is the London-based United Kingdom music licensing company which undertakes collective rights management of recorded music and music videos for public performance, broadcast and new media use...

(PPL) announced that it would charge additional royalty fees on UK Internet radio

Internet radio

Internet radio is an audio service transmitted via the Internet...

stations if they broadcast outside the UK. Radio stations which stream online including GCap Media

GCap Media

GCap Media was a British commercial radio company formed from the merger of the Capital Radio Group and GWR Group. The merger was completed in May 2005. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. On 31 March 2008 the company agreed a takeover by...

and GMG Radio

GMG Radio

, have implemented IP blocking

IP blocking

IP blocking prevents the connection between a server/website and certain IP addresses or ranges of addresses. IP blocking effectively bans undesired connections from those computers to a website, mail server, or other Internet server....

to prevent listeners outside the UK from listening to their radio stations and therefore avoided the increased fees.

In March 2007, a BBC News

BBC News

BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...

article reported that the PPL were re-negotiating royalty fees paid by UK Internet radio stations, and the result of the negotiations would be that fees would increase.

Digital Radio Mondiale

Digital Radio Mondiale is a set of digital audio broadcasting technologies designed to work over the bands currently used for AM broadcasting, particularly shortwave...

is being considered by Ofcom

Ofcom

for introduction in Britain

United Kingdom

in 2012, on the present AM medium wave band.

In 2005, tests of DRM on shortwave

Shortwave

radio from European transmitters broadcasting into the United Kingdom were performed by Virgin Radio

Virgin Radio

Absolute Radio is one of the UK's three Independent National Radio stations. The station rebranded to its current name at 7.45am on 29 September 2008.The station is based in London and plays popular rock music...

, Classic Gold

Classic Gold

Classic Gold was a network of three "Gold" music formatted stations which broadcast on AM in Bradford, Hull and Sheffield. They were the Pennine Radio, Viking Radio and Radio Hallam's medium wave franchises...

, Premier Christian Radio

Premier Christian Radio

Premier Christian Radio is a British Christian radio station wholly owned by the charity Premier Christian Media Trust.Premier Christian Radio broadcasts Christian programming including news, debate, teachings and Christian music to London and the surrounding areas.It operates on three frequencies...

, Virgin Radio Classic Rock

Virgin Radio Classic Rock

A sister station to Absolute Radio, Absolute Classic Rock, is a radio station broadcasting to London via FM DAB, Virgin Media, Sky, Freesat channel 725 and worldwide on the internet...

, Asian Sound and CVC.

The British Broadcasting Corporation BBC

BBC

started broadcasting the BBC World Service on shortwave and mediumwave

Mediumwave

Medium wave is the part of the medium frequency radio band used mainly for AM radio broadcasting. For Europe the MW band ranges from 526.5 kHz to 1606.5 kHz...

radio for a few hours a day across Europe from Orford Ness in Suffolk and Kvitsøy

Kvitsøy

Kvitsøy is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is the smallest municipality in Norway . Kvitsøy was separated from Mosterøy on 1 January 1923.The municipality is an archipelago situated northwest of the coast of the Stavanger peninsula...

in Norway, the latter being receivable across England, Wales and Southern Scotland.

The BBC undertook a trial of the digital radio mondiale (DRM) technology, which allowed them to explore digital radio using medium-wave frequencies.
The trial broadcast BBC Radio Devon

BBC Radio Devon

BBC Radio Devon is the BBC Local Radio service for the English county of Devon. It began transmissions on 17 January 1983, replacing a previous breakfast show for Devon and Cornwall broadcast on the local frequencies of Radio 4....

using the new technology in the Plymouth area from April 2007 and closed down on 31 October 2008. In May 2009, the BBC released a report on the trial in Devon. The report gave a number of conclusions about DRM from the trial:

The sound quality from the trial was better than AM quality, but not as good as average DAB quality;
The daytime coverage of the DRM trial extended further than the discontinued AM service. However, the night-time service, as expected to be smaller than daytime coverage due to the characteristics of medium wave broadcasting, did cause problems with interference to the DRM trial. The BBC stated this interference can be avoided, but only with a redesign of the transmission network;
A single frequency network is possible and would be significantly robust
Robustness (computer science)
In computer science, robustness is the ability of a computer system to cope with errors during execution or the ability of an algorithm to continue to operate despite abnormalities in input, calculations, etc. Formal techniques, such as fuzz testing, are essential to showing robustness since this...

.

Digital Multimedia Broadcasting

In 2006, National Grid Wireless carried out a technical trial of T-DMB

Digital Multimedia Broadcasting

Digital Multimedia Broadcasting is a digital radio transmission technology developed in South Korea as part of the national IT project for sending multimedia such as TV, radio and datacasting to mobile devices such as mobile phones...

and DAB-IP on the Stoke & Stafford (formerly UTV-EMAP/Bauer Stoke) ensemble. The trial assessed the reception qualities of both technologies in urban and rural areas as well as the mobile television

Telematics

Telematics typically is any integrated use of telecommunications and informatics, also known as ICT...

and radio services which could be delivered.

There is currently an ongoing experimental DMB multiplex broadcast in London on L-Band and Cambridge on VHF Band III, used for video, audio and data applications.

Analogue switch-off

On 29 January 2009 the UK Government's interim report into digital communication for the future by Lord Carter, Digital Britain, made the suggestion that DAB would be the future direction of digital radio in the United Kingdom. The report stated that only when the following conditions are met, a migration from FM to DAB would begin:

Digital radio listening figures hit at least 50%;
Coverage of DAB matches that of FM, of 90% which the report stated would not be achieved until 2015. The report mentioned that the Government would work with the BBC to meet the coverage target.

Carter also suggested in his report that manufacturers of devices which can pick up radio signals ensure it is DAB ready for the forthcoming migration. The report also indicates plans to create a Digital Radio Delivery Group (DRDG), made up of the major investors of DAB, whose plan it will be to ensure a smooth transition from AM and FM to DAB for consumers. They will also advise on digital radio migration. On 22 September 2009 the DRDG and Digital Radio Development Bureau were integrated into one organisation for this purpose - Digital Radio UK.

On 16 June 2009 the final Digital Britain report concluded that a switchover of all national and local FM services which currently broadcast on DAB multiplexes would take place in 2015 and that DAB would be chosen to take the UK to and beyond switchover. The Digital Economy Act 2010

Digital Economy Act 2010

The Digital Economy Act 2010 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom regulating digital media. Introduced by Peter Mandelson, Lord Mandelson, it received Royal Assent on 8 April 2010, and came into force on 8 June 2010 The Digital Economy Act 2010 (c. 24) is an Act of the Parliament of...

has a requirement stating that the United Kingdom must prepare for digital switchover. To aid the transition to digital radio, Digital Radio UK started a Radio Amnesty during May and June 2010 where people could trade in an old AM/FM analogue radio for a 10-20% discount on a new DAB digital radio from participating retailers. Analogue sets which can be reconditioned will be sent to southern Africa.

On 30 November 2010 it was reported that ministers were considering delaying the switchover to DAB until 2017 at the earliest., however Ofcom did publish official plans for increasing DAB reception in various places around the same date.

Application and licensing

The United Kingdom media and communications regulator Ofcom

Ofcom

(and before the formation of Ofcom, the Radio Authority) advertises and provides the licenses for digital radio services in the United Kingdom, under the Broadcasting Acts of 1990 and 1996.

Application and licensing procedures

Ofcom awards licenses for digital radio services differently depending on the type of service and the platform. Ofcom advertises the licences of new digital radio ensembles and are subject to an open competition

Auction

An auction is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder...

to the highest bidder. Ensemble licence awards are awarded for twelve years. On digital television services, individual stations can apply for either a digital cable and satellite licence to broadcast on the aforementioned platforms, or apply for a digital terrestrial licence to broadcast on digital terrestrial television.

On Digital Terrestrial Television and DAB, broadcasters also need to contact the ensemble or multiplex

Multiplexing

operator of a local or national DAB ensemble or digital terrestrial multiplex to broadcast within a region, subject to a fee payable to the ensemble operator. On Digital Satellite, radio stations need to secure capacity with a transponder operator and an uplink to a satellite. To broadcast on the Sky Digital

Sky Digital (UK & Ireland)

platform, a broadcaster must also secure an EPG

Electronic program guide

Electronic program guides and interactive program guides provide users of television, radio, and other media applications with continuously updated menus displaying broadcast programming or scheduling information for current and upcoming programming...

slot allowing viewers to navigate to their channel using the set-top-boxes provided by British Sky Broadcasting

British Sky Broadcasting

British Sky Broadcasting Group plc is a satellite broadcasting, broadband and telephony services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with operations in the United Kingdom and the Ireland....

. A request for a EPG slot must be done up to nine months in advance. The same procedure applies to secure a slot on the Freesat

Freesat

platform, although stations need to contact Freesat UK Ltd instead of BSkyB. On Digital Cable, broadcasters need to contact a cable supplier for carriage.

All stations broadcast in the UK must legally hold a music copyright licence from the Phonographic Performance Limited

Phonographic Performance Limited

PPL is the London-based United Kingdom music licensing company which undertakes collective rights management of recorded music and music videos for public performance, broadcast and new media use...

, PRS for Music and Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society

Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society

The Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society is an organisation that pay royalties to composers, songwriters and music publishers when a composition is manufactured into any format. This includes copies of the music alone such as CDs and downloads, and also products that use the music as a part of...

in order for royalties

Royalties

Royalties are usage-based payments made by one party to another for the right to ongoing use of an asset, sometimes an intellectual property...

to be paid to the musician

Musician

A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

s the main bodies represent.

First national ensemble

On 24 March 1998, the Radio Authority advertised for the first (and at the time, the only one planned) national ensemble to be broadcast on DAB. The three national commercial services on FM and mediumwave had to be included as part of the ensemble, Classic FM

Classic FM (UK)

Classic FM, one of the United Kingdom's three Independent National Radio stations, broadcasts classical music in a popular and accessible style.-Overview:...

, talkSPORT

TalkSPORT

Talksport , owned by UTV radio, is one of the United Kingdom's three terrestrial analogue Independent National Radio broadcasters, offering a sports and talk radio service broadcast from London to the United Kingdom....

and Virgin Radio

Virgin Radio

. The licence was awarded to the sole applicant, GWR Group and NTL Broadcast to form Digital One. The original licence application included the following stations:

Digital One Ltd (original application)
Classic FM Classic FM (UK) Classic FM, one of the United Kingdom's three Independent National Radio stations, broadcasts classical music in a popular and accessible style.-Overview:...	Classical music	GWR (now part of Global Radio Global Radio Global Radio UK Ltd. is a British commercial radio company, the largest in the country following acquisitions of Chrysalis Radio and GCap Media.The company's Chief Executive Officer is Stephen Miron, while the Group Chairman is Charles Allen... )
Classic Gold Rock	Rock music	NTL
Club dance	Dance music	TBA
Plays, books and music	Comedy, drama and serials	TBA
Rolling news service	Rolling news	ITN
Soft AC	Female contemporary music	TBA
Sports channel	Live sports and comment	Talk Radio UK
Talk Radio TalkSPORT Talksport , owned by UTV radio, is one of the United Kingdom's three terrestrial analogue Independent National Radio broadcasters, offering a sports and talk radio service broadcast from London to the United Kingdom.... (now talkSPORT)	Talk radio	Talk Radio UK (now owned by UTV Radio UTV Radio UTV Radio is a UK media company, and owner of several radio stations in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. It is a growing branch of UTV Media.... )
Teen and chart hits	Pop and dance music	GWR
Virgin Radio Virgin Radio Absolute Radio is one of the UK's three Independent National Radio stations. The station rebranded to its current name at 7.45am on 29 September 2008.The station is based in London and plays popular rock music...	Complementary rock music	SMG plc SMG plc STV Group plc is a Scottish media company. It is a constituent of the FTSE Fledgling Index. Originally formed as Scottish Television, it changed its name to Scottish Media Group in 1996 when it acquired Caledonian Publishing, owners of Glasgow-based newspapers The Herald and Evening Times...

After the closure of PrimeTime Radio

PrimeTime Radio

PrimeTime Radio was a national UK radio station. It was once part of although it became independent in 2004. It operated as a sister station to Saga Digital radio. The line up featured a variety of presenters including David Hamilton, Don Durbridge, David Allan, Dave Cash, Tony Myatt and Sheila...

in 2006, the original licence was amended to allow the launch of a new classic and contemporary jazz service, theJazz

TheJazz

which was launched on 25 December 2006, before the 31 December 2006 deadline set in the licence amendment.

In April 2009, Global Radio, which had acquired GCap Media - part owner of Digital One, sold its 63% stake in the ensemble to Arqiva, making them the sole owner and operator of the ensemble.

Local ensembles

The Radio Authority (and subsequently Ofcom) continue to award regional ensemble licences to a number of radio groups with advertising of the licences starting from 1998, and licence awards being awarded from 10 May 1999, with the Birmingham ensemble being the first local licence being issued to CE Digital. The Birmingham ensemble licence award was followed by awards for licences in Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

, Greater London

Greater London

Greater London is the top-level administrative division of England covering London. It was created in 1965 and spans the City of London, including Middle Temple and Inner Temple, and the 32 London boroughs. This territory is coterminate with the London Government Office Region and the London...

, Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

and South Yorkshire

South Yorkshire

South Yorkshire is a metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It has a population of 1.29 million. It consists of four metropolitan boroughs: Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, and City of Sheffield...

, with more licences being awarded afterwards.

In October 2006, Ofcom announced a timetable of locations which would get its own DAB ensemble, where a local ensemble does not currently offer coverage. Three blocks will be made available in VHF Band III

Band III

. In May 2007, Ofcom replaced the York and Scarborough for a licence which covers the whole of North Yorkshire, and the Guildford plus Reigate and Crawley licences were merged to cover Surrey.

Areas covered are as follows:

Area	Advertisement date	Block	Winning applicant	Ensemble name
Hertfordshire Hertfordshire Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and... , Bedfordshire Bedfordshire Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county of historic origin in England that forms part of the East of England region.It borders Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south-east.... and Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....	December 2006	10D	NOW Digital	NOW Home Counties
Derbyshire Derbyshire Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...	January 2007	10B	NOW Digital (East Midlands)	NOW Derbyshire NOW Derbyshire Now Derbyshire is an upcoming local commercial digital radio multiplex in the United Kingdom, which will serve Derbyshire and other parts of the East Midlands....
Wrexham Wrexham Wrexham is a town in Wales. It is the administrative centre of the wider Wrexham County Borough, and the largest town in North Wales, located in the east of the region. It is situated between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley close to the border with Cheshire, England... and Chester Chester Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...	February 2007	10D	MuxCo	MuxCo North East Wales & West Cheshire
Hereford Hereford Hereford is a cathedral city, civil parish and county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, southwest of Worcester, and northwest of Gloucester... and Worcestershire Worcestershire Worcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in antiquity, located in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region...	March 2007	10B	MuxCo	MuxCo Hereford & Worcester
Northamptonshire Northamptonshire Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...	April 2007	10C	NOW Digital	NOW Northampton
Oxfordshire Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....	May 2007	10B	NOW Digital	NOW Oxford
Gloucestershire Gloucestershire Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....	July 2007	10C	MuxCo	MuxCo Gloucestershire
North Yorkshire North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a non-metropolitan or shire county located in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England, and a ceremonial county primarily in that region but partly in North East England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972 it covers an area of , making it the largest...	June 2007	12D	MuxCo	MuxCo North Yorkshire
Mid Mid Wales Mid Wales is the name given to the central region of Wales. The Mid Wales Regional Committee of the National Assembly for Wales covered the counties of Ceredigion and Powys and the area of Gwynedd that had previously been the district of Meirionydd. A similar definition is used by the BBC... and West Wales West Wales West Wales is the western area of Wales.Some definitions of West Wales include only Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire, an area which historically comprised the Welsh principality of Deheubarth., an area called "South West Wales" in the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics....	August 2007	12D	MuxCo	MuxCo Mid and West Wales
Surrey Surrey Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of... and Northern Sussex Sussex Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...	September 2007	10C	MuxCo	MuxCo Surrey and Northern Sussex
Lincolnshire Lincolnshire Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...	October 2007	10D	MuxCo	MuxCo Lincolnshire

As part of the Digital Economy Act 2010

Digital Economy Act 2010

which gained Royal Assent

Royal Assent

The granting of royal assent refers to the method by which any constitutional monarch formally approves and promulgates an act of his or her nation's parliament, thus making it a law...

and became law on 8 April. 2010, some DAB ensembles will be reorganised and merged. As a result, local ensembles are waiting for the act to commence on 12 June 2010 before going any further.

Regional ensembles

The first regional licence to cover a greater area of land compared to a local ensemble was awarded on 6 October 2000 to Switch Digital for Central Scotland Other areas which were awarded and classed as regional licences include:

Region	Operator	Licence award date	On air date
Central Scotland Central Belt The Central Belt of Scotland is a common term used to describe the area of highest population density within Scotland. Despite the name, it is not geographically central but is nevertheless situated at the 'waist' of Scotland on a conventional map and the term 'central' is used in many local...	Switch Digital	6 October 2000	June 2001
North East England North East England North East England is one of the nine official regions of England. It covers Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear, and Teesside . The only cities in the region are Durham, Newcastle upon Tyne and Sunderland...	MXR Ltd	15 December 2000	July 2001
South Wales South Wales South Wales is an area of Wales bordered by England and the Bristol Channel to the east and south, and Mid Wales and West Wales to the north and west. The most densely populated region in the south-west of the United Kingdom, it is home to around 2.1 million people and includes the capital city of... and the Severn Estuary Bristol Channel The Bristol Channel is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales from Devon and Somerset in South West England. It extends from the lower estuary of the River Severn to the North Atlantic Ocean...	MXR Ltd	23 January 2001	July 2001
West Midlands West Midlands (region) The West Midlands is an official region of England, covering the western half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It contains the second most populous British city, Birmingham, and the larger West Midlands conurbation, which includes the city of Wolverhampton and large towns of Dudley,...	MXR Ltd	9 February 2001	August 2001
North West England North West England North West England, informally known as The North West, is one of the nine official regions of England.North West England had a 2006 estimated population of 6,853,201 the third most populated region after London and the South East...	MXR Ltd	9 March 2001	September 2001
Yorkshire Yorkshire Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...	MXR Ltd	28 November 2002	June 2003

In March 2009, Ofcom made a recommendation to the Government in their Radio in Digital Britain report that the regional ensembles should expand into a nationwide regionalised service to fill the gap made by the 4Digital Group pulling out of the second national ensemble. Ofcom cited that the regions for the second national ensemble would be:

The East Midlands
East Midlands
The East Midlands is one of the regions of England, consisting of most of the eastern half of the traditional region of the Midlands. It encompasses the combined area of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Northamptonshire and most of Lincolnshire...

, East Anglia
East Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...

, mid and southern Lincolnshire;
London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, Southern England
Southern England
Southern England, the South and the South of England are imprecise terms used to refer to the southern counties of England bordering the English Midlands. It has a number of different interpretations of its geographic extents. The South is considered by many to be a cultural region with a distinct...

, the South East
South East England
South East England is one of the nine official regions of England, designated in 1994 and adopted for statistical purposes in 1999. It consists of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Surrey and West Sussex...

and the South Midlands
South Midlands
The South Midlands is a notional area of England. According to one definition, it is the southern portion of the East Midlands together with the northern portion of South East England and the western portion of the East of England, and just as there is no agreed definition for these areas,...

;
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

;
North East England and Cumbria
Cumbria
Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...

;
North West England;
Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

;
The West Midlands;
Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

;
The West
West of England
The West of England is a loose and locationally unspecific term sometimes given to the area surrounding the city and county of Bristol, England, and also sometimes applied more widely and in other parts of South West England.-Use in the Bristol area:...

and South West of England
South West England
South West England is one of the regions of England defined by the Government of the United Kingdom for statistical and other purposes. It is the largest such region in area, covering and comprising Bristol, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire, Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. ...

;
Yorkshire, the North Midlands
North Midlands
The North Midlands is a loosely-defined area of England. It is typically held to include South Yorkshire and the northern parts of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, and in some definitions also covers southern Cheshire and parts of Lincolnshire and Staffordshire. The region's largest city is Sheffield...

and North Lincolnshire
North Lincolnshire
North Lincolnshire is a unitary authority area in the region of Yorkshire and the Humber in England. For ceremonial purposes it is part of Lincolnshire....

.

Second national ensemble

Ofcom announced in 2005 that they would be advertising for the second national digital ensemble. As a result, GCap

GCap Media

threatened to take Ofcom to court after being told by the Radio Authority that there would not be another national ensemble. The court action was dropped after Ofcom assured GCap that none of the stations on the second ensemble would compete with existing stations on the Digital One ensemble.

On 1 December 2006, Ofcom advertised a licence for a second national digital ensemble to launch new digital radio and multimedia services on frequency block 11A (216.928 MHz). Applications needed to be submitted to Ofcom by 28 March 2007.

On 29 March 2007, Ofcom announced that it had received two applications for the second national digital ensemble, from the 4 Digital Group

4 Digital Group

and National Grid Wireless. The radio channels which made up both applications are as follows:

EWLINE

4 Digital Group
Channel 4 Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel... Radio	Speech	Channel 4 Radio Channel 4 Radio Channel 4 Radio was a radio brand launched by Channel 4 in January 2007. On October 11, 2008 the closure was announced. It incorporated Oneword, in which Channel 4 purchased a 51% share in 2005, although it relinquished this share to co-owner UBS Media in January 2008.Listeners were required to...
Closer	Female music and lifestyle	EMAP EMAP Emap Limited is a British media company, specialising in the production of business-to-business magazines, and the organisation of business events and conferences...
Disney The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...	Children's radio	The Walt Disney Company
E4 Radio	Youthful entertainment and music	Channel 4 Radio
Original	Album led alternative music	CanWest Global Communications CanWest Global Communications Canwest Global Communications Corporation, which operated under the corporate brand Canwest, was a major Canadian media company based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with its head offices at Canwest Place...
Pure 4	Adult music and speech	Channel 4 Radio
Sky News Radio Sky News Sky News is a 24-hour British and international satellite television news broadcaster with an emphasis on UK and international news stories.The service places emphasis on rolling news, including the latest breaking news. Sky News also hosts localised versions of the channel in Australia and in New...	Rolling news	British Sky Broadcasting British Sky Broadcasting British Sky Broadcasting Group plc is a satellite broadcasting, broadband and telephony services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with operations in the United Kingdom and the Ireland....
Sunrise Radio Sunrise Radio Sunrise Radio is the United Kingdom's first Independent Local Radio station to cater specifically for the Asian community. Dr Avtar Lit is the chairman and chief executive of this media group which also operates kismat radio,buzz asia,punjabi radio as well as sunrise tv-Transmission:It initially...	Asian music and community programming	Sunrise Radio Group
talkRadio	Talk radio Talk radio Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...	UTV plc UTV plc UTV Media is a broadcasting and New Media company based in Belfast in Northern Ireland. It is a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap Index. UTV Media's main operation is the ITV franchise for Northern Ireland, and it is also the owner of UTV Radio, which operates the UK Independent National Radio...
Virgin Radio Virgin Radio Absolute Radio is one of the UK's three Independent National Radio stations. The station rebranded to its current name at 7.45am on 29 September 2008.The station is based in London and plays popular rock music... Viva	Younger female music station	SMG plc SMG plc STV Group plc is a Scottish media company. It is a constituent of the FTSE Fledgling Index. Originally formed as Scottish Television, it changed its name to Scottish Media Group in 1996 when it acquired Caledonian Publishing, owners of Glasgow-based newspapers The Herald and Evening Times...
Podcast Podcast A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication... service	Various podcasts	Various

EWLINE

National Grid Wireless
BBC Asian Network BBC Asian Network BBC Asian Network is a British radio station serving those originating from and around the Indian subcontinent. The music and news comes out of the main urban areas where there are significant communities with these backgrounds. The station has production centres in Birmingham, Leicester and London...	Asian music and entertainment	BBC BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
Channel 4 Radio Station 1	TBA	Channel 4 Radio
Channel 4 Radio Station 2	TBA	Channel 4 Radio
Colourful	News and Afro-Caribbean British African-Caribbean community The British African Caribbean communities are residents of the United Kingdom who are of West Indian background and whose ancestors were primarily indigenous to Africa... community radio	Colourful Media Limited
Confidential	50+ radio station	Confidential
Confidential	Adult-Album	Confidential
Confidential	Asian radio station	Confidential
Confidential	Love songs	Confidential
Confidential	Rolling news	Confidential
Fun Radio	Children's programming (13 hours)	Children's Radio UK Limited
Premier Christian Radio Premier Christian Radio Premier Christian Radio is a British Christian radio station wholly owned by the charity Premier Christian Media Trust.Premier Christian Radio broadcasts Christian programming including news, debate, teachings and Christian music to London and the surrounding areas.It operates on three frequencies...	Christian Christianity Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings... programming	London Christian Radio Limited
Radio Luxembourg Radio Luxembourg (DRM) Radio Luxembourg is the name of a commercial radio station that has broadcast in many languages in conjunction with a television service operated from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.-Background history:...	Youthful alternative and indie music	CLT/UFA
Radio Play	Interactive participation radio Quiz channel A quiz channel is a television channel that focuses on phone-in quizzes. The quizzes usually focus on puzzles, such as filling in blanks, identifying subjects, or other forms of word puzzles.... (6 hours)	Somethin' Else

On 6 July 2007 Ofcom awarded the licence for the second national ensemble to the 4 Digital Group, who were required to launch its services one year after its licence award. However on 10 October 2008 the 4 Digital Group pulled its plans for digital radio, including the launch of the second multiplex. Ofcom held talks with the other remaining shareholders of the 4 Digital Group to see if they were willing to continue with the launch. In March 2009, Ofcom recommended to the Government that the second national ensemble should be regionalised, formed by the existing regional ensembles.

Digital Radio UK

Digital Radio UK is an organisation which represents the interests of the digital radio industry including the BBC, commercial radio companies and transmission network operator, Arqiva

Arqiva

. The organisation also promotes the use and take up of DAB in the United Kingdom and ensure that the deadline for digital migration in 2015 is met. Digital Radio UK is formed from the Digital Radio Delivery Group which also absorbed the Digital Radio Development Bureau (DRDB). Part of DRDB's plans, and under Digital Radio UK still is, will be to promote DAB

Digital audio broadcasting

uptake through a website for consumers as well as print and radio advertising

Radio commercial

Commercial radio stations make most of their revenue selling “airtime” to advertisers. Of total media expenditures, radio accounts for 6.9%. Radio advertisements or “spots” are available when a business or service provides valuable consideration, usually cash, in exchange for the station airing...

Digital Audio Broadcasting

Growth and benefits of DAB in the UK

Criticisms of DAB in the UK

GCap

4 Digital Group

DAB frequency plan

BBC National DAB

Commercial DAB multiplexes

DAB+

Digital terrestrial television

Digital satellite

Digital cable television

Internet radio

Digital Radio Mondiale

Digital Multimedia Broadcasting

Analogue switch-off

Application and licensing

Application and licensing procedures

First national ensemble

Local ensembles

Regional ensembles

Second national ensemble

Digital Radio UK

See also

Official sites

National and regional multiplex sites operators

UK Internet radio

Other sites