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Surprise fall in digital radio listener figures

The Isle of Man is right not to commit itself to DAB, or digital audio broadcasting, too early.

That's the view of the director of the Communications Commission Dr Carmel McLaughlin as a new report in the United Kingdom claims the number of people using the technology has gone down.

The latest figures from Radio Joint Audience Research shows fewer adults are listening to fewer hours of digital radio than they were three months ago.

The UK government's 'Digital Britain' report estimated that 26 per cent of radio listening would be digital by the end of this year,

However, this now seems unlikely with the figure currently at just over 21 per cent.

Dr McLaughlin says radio listening figures do fluctuate regularly, but admits the latest one for DAB is lower than expected.

It's also not what the UK Government wanted if it was to consider replacing the analogue FM radio service:





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