Sound Digital


Sound Digital is a semi-national commercial digital radio multiplex in the United Kingdom, owned by Arqiva, Bauer Media Group and Wireless Group. The multiplex covers 83% of the population from a total of 45 transmitters.

History

Following the collapse of the winning 4 Digital Group bid for the second national ensemble in 2008, the capacity was re-advertised in 2014. Two bids were received, Sound Digital and Listen2Digital, a consortium run by Orion Media and Babcock International Group. On 27 March 2015, Sound Digital were selected as the winner.
Between award and launch, Premier Praise and Panjab Radio, a Listen2Digital station, joined the line up along with DAB+ stations Fun Kids and Magic Chilled. Also, BMR and UCB Inspirational were rebranded Awesome Radio and UCB2 respectively and TalkBusiness was replaced by Listen2Digital station Share Radio.
Test transmission commenced in February 2016, which consisted of Sound Waves and Sound Waves+ for DAB and DAB+ respectively. An official launch took place on 29 February, with the majority of stations launching on this date and the remainder following over the next month.
On 15 May 2018, Sound Digital announced the planned introduction of additional 19 transmittersto improve coverage in the South West, East Anglia, Wales and North of Scotlandincreasing the multiplex's coverage to 83%, adding nearly 4 million new listeners in more than 1.6m new households.

Stations carried

DAB

DAB+