Canberra, Australia - May 21, 2012 - Australians are beginning to pay attention to digital radio; they bought 88,004 digital radios in the first quarter of calendar 2012, according to a GfK Marketscope report recently released by Commercial Radio Australia. This represents a 63 percent increase from the 53,996 digital radios sold in the prior corresponding period. Australians have bought 833,320 digital radios since the service was launched in 2009.

Official Nielsen radio survey results for metropolitan Survey 3, 2012, show that 10.1 percent or nearly 1.3 million people are listening to digital radio each week (in the five state capitals). Time spent listening (TSL) to radio via a DAB+ digital radio device also continues to grow reaching 12 hours and 48 minutes, once again outstripping TSL to radio via the internet which is at five hours and 34 minutes.

During the three years since the launch, penetration a digital radio has increased to about in about one in 10 Australian homes. That isn't as quick of an acceptance as seen with smartphones, but it's a faster take-up rate than many previous technological advances, including VCRs, DVD players and digital television (according to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald). That's also despite digital radio having much less publicity than digital TV, and the fact that digital radio has been rolled out to only five mainland capital cities. A rollout plan for the rest of the country is due to be announced in 2013.