More Motors Rolling on the Zeroes & Ones

Here’s a bit of a DRUK round-up for you. Talk Audio is a media partner of Digital Radio UK, although minor compared to the BBC and the mighty Bauer radio and magazine empire. (Bauer are the outfit who bought EMAP – the Max Power, Anglers Mail and CAR magazine publishers, who also have a slew of utterly cool commercial radio stations, with real reach on DAB.) And as far as we know, Talk Audio magazine is the only specialist car radio site involved with DRUK. Dead proud of that.
Today Digital Radio UK announced that 35.4% of new cars now come with digital radio as standard, according to new Q1 2013 CAP/SMMT data released today, an increase from 22.5% in Q1 2012, and 9.9% in Q1 2011. In Q1 2013 there were 215,000 cars sold with digital radio as standard which represents 70% growth since Q1 2012.
This growth reflects a major shift in the policy of leading vehicle manufacturers who have committed to fitting digital radio as standard. In early 2013 100% of new BMW model registrations had digital radio, 81% of new VW models and 73% of new Ford models. This follows recent news from Audi who announced that from this month (April 2013) all their new models will have digital radio as standard.
UK new vehicle sales were at record levels in Q1 2013. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders announced last week that registrations in Q1 rose by 7.4% to 605,198 units. The top 10 selling models in March 2013

Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture, Communications and the Creative Industries, says: ‘More than a third of all new cars are now rolling out of the factory with a digital radio fitted as standard.  It is great to see the car industry embracing digital radio and provide drivers with the full range of stations now available. More and more manufacturers are switching to digital and by the end of the year the majority of new cars should be fitted with digital radios.’
Ford Ennals, CEO of Digital Radio UK, says: ‘This is a tipping point for digital radio in-car. In a record sales quarter there has been a major shift with the leading manufacturers such as BMW, VW and Ford  now having the majority of their new models with digital radio as standard. Drivers really love digital radio and we see the continuing growth of digital radio in-car as inevitable with the commitment of most vehicle manufacturers and the continued  expansion of local DAB coverage across the UK road network.’