The Digital Radio Development Bureau has hit back at claims by UTV Media's Scott Taunton who claims the sales of DAB digital radio sets are in decline.
A DRDB spokesperson told RadioToday.co.uk the figures to date are similar, saying sales to end October 2009 are 1.36 million, compared with sales to end October 2008 which were 1.37 million.
"Scott seems to have taken a full year’s sales in 2008, including the big Christmas period, and compared it with 10 months in 2009.
"Scott also quotes a figures of 120 million analogue radios in circulation. Ofcom figures put in home analogue radios at 46 million and in car at 22 million used at least once a week, which makes a total of 68 million analogue radios in use."
It's fair to say the majority of FM sales are for devices where FM is not the main feature and is not used frequently, if at all, such as mobile phones and clock radios.
DRDB continues: "The fact remains that analogue sales have been in decline for the past year. Sales to September 2009 are nearly two million down for the same period in 2008. DAB digital radio sales, meanwhile, continue to hold steady as noted above."
Scott told RadioToday.co.uk yesterday: "Radio listeners have spoken. Today's disappointing DAB sales announcement is a resounding 'no' vote for the government's proposal to switch off analogue signals in 2015. Whilst cumulative sales of 10m digital sets prove that DAB is here to stay, there are 120 million analogue radios currently in circulation in the UK. At this rate of sales, it would take up to 60 years to convert them all to digital."