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The Government is ramping up plans for the switchover from analogue to digital, and will accelerate towards it over the next few years.
That's according to Digital Radio UK, the organisation managing the move and promoting DAB usage. Ford Ennals, the organisation's CEO, says: "The radio switchover we're planning with Government will impact just about every single motorist in the UK. There will be an announcement [about the switchover] in 2013.
"[The Government] will only announce the precise time of the switchover when 50% of all the listening is digital. We think this will be achieved by 2015."
An increasing number of vehicle manufacturers are fitting DABs as standard, but the concern for businesses is the potentially negative residual value impact of vehicles lacking digital radios when they are defleeted.
Laurence Harrison, technology and market director at Digital Radio UK, tells BusinessCar: "The feedback we've had from [RV experts] Cap is that at the point the switch is confirmed, they believe that RVs will change. You wouldn't necessarily have a high value on a car with DAB but you would have a low one on a non-DAB car.
"Fitted as standard and available as an option works out at about 55% [of new registrations]. The problem with this option is that it's expensive, so we think fleets are unlikely to spec it because of this. It de-risks it for fleets if it's standard. [Fleets] want to be buying as many standard-fit DAB vehicles in advance as possible."
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