Digital Radio Platform Bit Rates

In the Freeview and digital satellite (DSat) columns in the table below, the bit rate is listed for all the stations available in the UK on those platforms. There are also 200-300 European free radio stations that can be received on satellite but only the UK stations are listed. 

The rows in green and sky-blue at the top of the table are the stations that are available on DAB on the national BBC and Digital One multiplexes. Below this the DAB stations that have a bit rate listed are the most commonly occurring DAB stations that are on regional and local DAB multiplexes. However, the stations that are available in your area may vary significantly from those listed in the DAB column in the Miscellaneous Other Stations part of the table and you will need to check what stations are available in your area by going to this postcode checker (please bear in mind that that website is run by the Digital Radio Development Bureau (DRDB) whose sole purpose is to promote DAB in the UK, so treat any claims about good audio quality with skepticism).

The important thing to remember in the table below is that the higher the bit rate used for a station, the higher the audio quality will be, and vice versa. So for example, stations on digital satellite (DSat) usually use a higher bit rate than on DAB, so their audio quality will be higher on DSat than on DAB. Also note that bit rates below 128 kbps will virtually always be mono stations so the bit rate required is approximately half that of a stereo station.