There are currently 68.4m analogue radios, in use in the UK, including 22.5m in cars, the Liberal Democrats have revealed. These radios will lose all national stations once the digital switchover is complete in 2015.

If all these radios were to be replaced with digital ones, it would cost around £3bn.

Commenting, Lib Dem Shadow Culture, Media and Sport Secretary, Don Foster said:

This figure shows the sheer scale of the radio switchover project. Even if people go for the cheapest digital radios, replacing this many analogue radios will cost people nearly £3bn. Financial help with TV switchover is being provided for the least well off. We need a similar scheme for switchover to digital radio. For those who will not qualify for such help, the real benefits of going digital must be explained clearly. We also need to plan what happens to the 70m unusable radios.