Australian radio industry celebrates 3 years of Digital Radio with a national outside broadcast

More than 50 Australian commercial radio stations and public broadcasters ABC and SBS broadcast simultaneously in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide this morning to a combined potential audience of more than 13 million, in a massive outside broadcast to celebrate three years of digital radio.

Digital radio technology in Australia, switched on in 2009, is tracking ahead of forecast. Nearly one in ten households in the five state capital cities has a digital radio with household penetration forecast to reach 16 percent by December 2013 and 18 percent by June 2014.  Extensive work is underway on the planning for digital radio rollout to regional Australia and proposed timelines are being developed for discussions with the Federal Government.

The DAB+ digital radio service has more than 1.3 million people listening each week with more than 900,000 digital radio devices sold so far. 

Toyota, the first local car manufacturer to feature DAB+ digital radio as standard in selected locally built vehicles joined the celebration and gave away five DAB+ equipped cars on the morning of the event. One winner in each state was able to choose from a Camry Atara SL, Camry Hybrid HL or an Aurion V6 Presara.