The DAB radio market is projected to grow at just under 15% per year through to 2032, according to Verified Market Research. That is not a niche technology finding its feet. That is a mature distribution platform in sustained, structural growth.
The market was valued at $725 million in 2025. It is on a path to $1.4 billion by 2033. The infrastructure question, whether DAB+ is a real platform or an expensive experiment, is settled. The strategy question is just beginning.
More than 50 million vehicles on European roads today carry DAB+ receivers. That figure comes directly from WorldDAB's 2025 data, and it is a direct result of the EU and UK mandating DAB+ in all new cars sold since 2021.
In Belgium's Flanders region, 54% of all radio listening already happens on digital platforms, with DAB+ accounting for 32% of daily listening. Those are not future projections. That is the current listening reality for a significant European market right now.
What DAB+ does to format economics is the part the market size headlines miss. Launching a new station on a DAB multiplex costs a fraction of what an FM licence requires. That changes the risk calculation for format experimentation completely.
Radiodays Europe 2025 in Athens heard strong support for DAB+ as a route to niche audiences through more specialised formats. Virgin Radio 90s in London is one example. But the deeper point is that DAB+ removes the economic barrier that has kept format innovation slow for two decades. A station can now test a decade-specific format, a genre-specific service, or a language-specific offer without betting the business on it.
The one complication worth watching is Switzerland. The Swiss FM switch-off, planned for the end of 2026, was indefinitely postponed after the Swiss parliament voted to delay it in December 2025. That decision does not reverse the DAB+ growth story.
But it is a reminder that the timeline from digital growth to analogue switch-off is rarely linear. WorldDAB's updated DAB+ launch guide, released for World Radio Day 2026, is the clearest available map of what that journey looks like country by country. For programme directors thinking about format strategy over a three to five year horizon, the platform question is no longer whether DAB+ matters. It is whether your station has a clear plan for what to do with the spectrum it opens up.
Sources:
• DAB Radio Market Size, Share, Trends, Analysis & Forecast, Verified Market Research, https://www.verifiedmarketresearch.com/product/dab-radio-market/
• DAB+ expansion gains momentum across Europe, RedTech, https://www.redtech.pro/dab-expansion-gains-momentum-across-europe/
• WorldDAB updates DAB+ launch guide for World Radio Day 2026, RedTech, https://www.redtech.pro/worlddab-updates-dab-plus-launch-guide-2026/
• Global growth of DAB+ highlighted at Radiodays Europe 2025, WorldDAB, https://www.worlddab.org/news/blogs/142/global-growth-of-dab+-highlighted-at-radiodays-europe-2025
