Sound Digital is a semi-national commercial

digital radio Digital radio is the use of digital technology to transmit or receive across the radio spectrum. Digital transmission by radio waves includes digital broadcasting, and especially digital audio radio services. Types In digital broadcasting syst ...

multiplex in the United Kingdom, owned by

Arqiva Arqiva () is a British telecommunications company which provides infrastructure, broadcast transmission and smart meter facilities in the United Kingdom. The company is headquartered at the former Independent Broadcasting Authority headquarters ...

Bauer Media Group Heinrich Bauer Publishing (german: Heinrich Bauer Verlag KG), trading as Bauer Media Group, is a German multimedia conglomerate headquartered in Hamburg. It operates worldwide and owns more than 600 magazines, over 400 digital products and 50 ra ...

and

Wireless Group Wireless Group Limited is a radio and digital broadcasting network with headquarters in Belfast, Northern Ireland and with radio operations in the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. It currently operates five stations in Ireland and ...

. The multiplex covers 73% of the population from a total of 45 transmitters.

History

Following the collapse of the winning

4 Digital Group 4 Digital Group was a media consortium in the United Kingdom. In July 2007, the group won the licence to operate the second national DAB radio multiplex. The consortium, led by Channel 4 Radio, was a combination of existing commercial radio op ...

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 Fun Kids is a national children's and pop digital radio station in the United Kingdom with associated websites, YouTube and podcast channels. It has previously been the winner of the Sony and Arqiva Digital Radio Stations of the year. It is op ...

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+

Former services

Services previously carried on the multiplex include: *Awesome Radio - never fully launched, promo barker ran from launch of SDL until removal in Aug 2017 *

Heat Radio Heat Radio is a British digital radio station, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Kiss Network. It broadcasts online to the UK and on Digital Radio in Inverness. As of September 2022, the station has a weekly audience of 456,000 list ...

- removed Feb 2019 * JACK Radio - replaced by Union JACK Dance in December 2020 *

Kisstory Kisstory is a British digital radio station owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Kiss Network. Playing "old skool and anthems", it is a sister station to Kiss. As of June 2022, the station has a weekly audience of 2.1 million listeners, ...

- moved to

Digital One Digital One is a national commercial digital radio multiplex in the United Kingdom, owned by Arqiva. , the multiplex covered more than 90% of the population from 137 transmitters. Coverage was extended to Northern Ireland in July 2013. It conta ...

in Feb 2019 *Love Sport - removed late 2020 *

Magic Chilled Magic or Magick most commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces * Ceremonial magic, encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic * Magical thinking, the belief that unrel ...

- moved to local tier DAB in Feb 2019 *Panjab Radio - moved to local DAB in December 2019 *Share Radio - moved to online-only service May 2017 * UCB2 - moved to

as a DAB+ service in March 2022 *

Union JACK The Union Jack, or Union Flag, is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. Although no law has been passed making the Union Flag the official national flag of the United Kingdom, it has effectively become such through precedent. ...

(launched on 9 September 2016, removed on 24 February 2022) * Union JACK Dance (launched on 10 December 2020, removed on 24 February 2022) * Union JACK Rock(launched on 10 December 2020, removed on 24 February 2022)

References

{{Wireless Group Digital audio broadcasting multiplexes