The digital radio industry is keeping its fingers crossed as the first affordable digital radios hit stores in London today, though the initial batch are expected to sell out pretty much immediately. The sets will be available nationally from mid-August, and, at £100, it is hoped they will encourage people to tune into digital only radio stations like the BBC’s Five Live Sports Extra, 6 Music and 1Xtra, and commercial stations PrimeTime, Core, Planet Rock, Life, Oneword and Bloomberg, plus a range of local digital stations. Up until now digital sets retailed at £250 or more and relatively few have been sold, meaning digital only stations have relied on people listening via Sky Digital or the web. But the feeling is that once the new cheaper models are available digital radio could really take off, possibly proving more popular than digital TV. In fact more than 50,000 of the new £99 Pure Evoke-1 sets are expected to be sold by Christmas - which would double the number of people listening to digital radio.
Jul 31, 2002
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1 min read
Digital radio gets affordable
The first affordable digital radio sets, priced at £100, go on sale in London, with national availability from mid-August and hopes they will boost listening to digital-only stations.