A radio scrappage scheme may be introduced to to persuade listeners to go digital.The radio equivalent of the car scheme could involve a 20 per cent discount on a new digital set if you bring in one of the 100 million or so analogue ones estimated to still be in circulation.

Industry executives hope that the idea will quash a potential rebellion among FM radio listeners as the deadline for switching off the analogue radio signal approaches. The government has set a date of 2015 for turning off the analogue signal, although that is regarded as an aspiration rather than a concrete policy objective and it is a target that few in the radio industry expect it to meet.

A spokeswoman for Digital Radio UK, the organisation set up to drive switchover, said of the scrappage scheme: “It is something we are looking at we want to do.” Its members include the BBC, commercial radio stations and Arqiva, the company that owns the digital radio network and licences frequency to radio stations.

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