'Scrappage' scheme to boost digital radio

Stephen Fry will appear in a major marketing campaign to promote a month-long radio 'scrappage' scheme designed to encourage consumers to switch to digital sets.

The campaign, which is titled Radio Amnesty, will involve discounts being offered on new digital radios for anyone trading in an old analogue model.

To promote the scheme, Digital Radio UK has developed an on-air radio promotion featuring Fry, Gaby Logan and Noddy Holder.

The ads will run on a range of commercial networks, including Classic FM, Absolute Radio and TalkSport, along with over 100 local stations.

Promos will also air on BBC stations Radio 2, Radio 4 and Radio 7, while special voice trailers featuring Logan will run on Radio 5 Live.

Radio manufacturers, such as Pure, Roberts and Sony, have agreed to take part in the scheme and offer discounts of around 10% on their new digital sets.

Retailers Tesco, Argos, Comet and John Lewis have also signed up for the initiative, which starts on May 22 and runs until June 26.

Developed jointly by the BBC and commercial radio industry, the scheme has been inspired by the success of the government's car scrappage campaign.

All analogue radios collected during the amnesty will be reconditioned and distributed to UNICEF and the Children's Radio Foundation in Southern Africa.

Any radios beyond reasonable repair will be recycled under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive.

The campaign will aim to boost the scale of digital radio usage towards achieving a government target of 50% of all radio listening by 2013.

Should this be achieved, the digital radio switchover could go ahead in 2015, with the UK's analogue radio signal being turned off.

According to the latest RAJAR figures for the first three months of 2010, digital accounted for 24% of all listening, with the majority being on the digital audio broadcasting (DAB) platform.