A three year trial of digital radio will examine the future feasibility of such a services on the island.

The Communications and Utilities Regulatory Authority has issued a licence for the trial after a request by Manx Radio.

As part of the trial Manx Radio will be permitted to provide access to the DAB service to other broadcasters who currently hold a broadcasting licence issued by the authority for their services (3FM and Energy).

Under the terms of the trial, adverts that would normally be heard on existing frequencies would be permitted, but ‘the fact that DAB is being used to broadcast the content may not be commercially exploited in any way’.

While many cars have DAB options on their radios, currently on some BBC services can be picked up on the island and even then it is a somewhat patchy system.

No details have been provided as to what a future service may look like, however in many places where DAB has been rolled out, this has led to the rise of smaller independent radio stations.