Talk stations

There are three national digital talk stations on DAB. BBC 5 Live Sports Extra is a part-time service, providing additional sports commentaries to that on the main 5 Live network, including Test Match Special. BBC 7 broadcasts comedy, drama and book readings from the Radio 4 archive and original children's programmes. Commercial station Oneword provides a similar mixture, focused more on book readings. In addition, AM stations 5 Live and Talk Sport are broadcast in reasonable quality (and without the night-time reception problems experienced in some areas) and BBC World Service is made available nationally for 24 hours a day. In addition, London station, LBC, is available across much of the country on DAB.

From 2008, three further talk stations: Channel 4 Radio, Talk Radio and Sky News Radio will launch.

Rock music stations

The Rock music audience is well served by DAB, in contrast to FM where rock stations are only available in London, Manchester, the Midlands, Central Scotland and South Wales. National AM station, Virgin, is available in stereo, whilst BBC 6 music caters for the serious music enthusiast, peppering new and classic cutting edge rock with the odd bit of funk, R&B, reggae and country. Planet Rock broadcasts classic rock from the past 40 years nationally, whereas The Arrow plays a similar mix to the major cities. Most local multiplexes carry modern rock stations XFM, while Kerrang is also widely available.

Oldies and easy listening stations

AM oldies stations are carried on the appropriate local multiplex (where available) with Gold also vailable as an extra station in much of the North. Smooth Radio also has more extensive coverage on DAB than on FM. However, with the closure of Primetime Radio in 2006, the over 60s audience is less well catered for than in the past.

Mainstream music stations

Although there are plenty of contemporary hit and adult contemporary stations available on FM, DAB offers more. Nationally, Core plays current hits, whilst Life plays adult contemporary music, though both are scheduled to close. From mid 2008, new national stations E4 Radio, Pure 4, Closer and Virgin Radio Viva wil all broadcast mainstream music. Adult contemporary stations Heart and Real Radio broadcast more widely on DAB than on FM, with Adult Pop station Heat also widely available.

Nationally, the BBC Asian Network provides a mixture of music, talk and asian language programmes for members of the Asian community of all ages. The Jazz plays a wide range of jazz music. BBC 1Xtra plays an urban music mix of R&B, rap, reggae, garage and drum'n'bass. Choice plays an R&B led mix of urban music to the major cities. London has the most extensive range of specialist stations, but Asian music stations areavailable in many places with Sunrise to broadcast nationally from mid 2008.