{"id":2659,"date":"2026-06-25T06:27:05","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T20:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/?p=2659"},"modified":"2026-06-25T06:27:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T20:27:05","slug":"uk-small-scale-dab-nationwide-roll-out-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/2026\/06\/25\/uk-small-scale-dab-nationwide-roll-out-success\/","title":{"rendered":"UK: Small-scale DAB nationwide roll out success"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Ofcom has&nbsp; <a href=\"https:\/\/ofcom.cmail19.com\/t\/i-l-zuihtjd-wklhthhhk-i\/\">today&nbsp;awarded<\/a> small-scale DAB multiplex licences for&nbsp;six&nbsp;more areas in the UK, drawing the successful&nbsp;nationwide rollout&nbsp;programme&nbsp;to a close.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Small-scale DAB is an innovative technology which&nbsp;provides&nbsp;a low-cost way for local commercial,&nbsp;community&nbsp;and specialist music services to take to the digital airwaves.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So far, 108 multiplexes have launched, supporting a wide range of hyperlocal digital radio&nbsp;stations,&nbsp;delivering a total of&nbsp;1,152 programme&nbsp;services&nbsp;to listeners&nbsp;across all four nations of the UK.&nbsp;Including today\u2019s awards, a&nbsp;further 50 multiplexes&nbsp;have been&nbsp;licensed,&nbsp;which we expect to&nbsp;launch&nbsp;at various points&nbsp;over&nbsp;the next&nbsp;18 months.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Paul Mercer, Ofcom\u2019s Director of Broadcast Licensing, said:<\/strong>&nbsp;\u201cThe innovative small-scale DAB programme was designed to help grassroots community broadcasters, specialist music stations, and services for minority and other underserved populations take to the digital airwaves. With more than 1,000 programme services being broadcast, listeners up and down the country are&nbsp;benefiting&nbsp;from local, diverse content.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This round of awards marks the&nbsp;end of the&nbsp;final&nbsp;round of licensing&nbsp;under the rollout programme.&nbsp;Following a competitive process, where each applicant was judged against specific criteria, multiplex licences have been awarded for the following areas:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Burton-on-Trent and Lichfield\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Cheltenham and Tewkesbury<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Cookstown and Dungannon\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Leamington Spa and Stratford upon Avon\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Skye and Lochalsh\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>South Hams\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ofcom has&nbsp; today&nbsp;awarded small-scale DAB multiplex licences for&nbsp;six&nbsp;more areas in the UK, drawing the successful&nbsp;nationwide rollout&nbsp;programme&nbsp;to a close.&nbsp;&nbsp; Small-scale DAB is an innovative technology which&nbsp;provides&nbsp;a low-cost way for local commercial,&nbsp;community&nbsp;and specialist music services to take to the digital airwaves.&nbsp; So far, 108 multiplexes have launched, supporting a wide range of hyperlocal digital radio&nbsp;stations,&nbsp;delivering a total &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/2026\/06\/25\/uk-small-scale-dab-nationwide-roll-out-success\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;UK: Small-scale DAB nationwide roll out success&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-overseas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2659"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2660,"href":"https:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2659\/revisions\/2660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}