NO - Grant Goddard, radio analyst, Enders Analysis
The 2017 digital switchover date seems unlikely to be achieved, given the slow consumer replacement cycle for radio receivers.
Last year, 79% of the 10 million radio receivers sold in the UK were still analogue and most of this hardware will have a life of 10 years or more - taking us past 2017. Although eight million DAB radios have been sold in the nine years since the platform launched in the UK, more than eight million analogue radios were purchased in the past year alone.
With the average household owning six radios, it is unlikely that by 2017 even half of these will have been replaced by DAB sets. Furthermore, although 37% of radio listening takes place outside the home, not one current UK mobile phone incorporates DAB radio.
While 20% of radio listening is in-car, it is estimated that only 170,000 to 200,000 of the 34 million vehicles on UK roads have DAB radios fitted. The 2017 switchover date represents mere wishful thinking, rather than a practical plan.
YES - Paul Robinson, managing director, KidsCo TV, and former TalkSport chief executive
Sometimes you have to be brave, take the plunge and to hell with it.
While 2017 sounds a very long way off, and five years after UK television will have switched off analogue, it's a challenging target to convert all radio listening to digital transmission in eight years.
For the commercial radio companies, the date can't come soon enough. Already hampered by an extremely strong BBC, and for many executives the worst downturn in living memory, commercial radio is burdened with the dual cost of analogue and digital transmission. We don't have mass DAB radio in cars and fewer than 10% of radios are DAB, so achieving switch-off via DAB alone is impossible.
What is needed is for 2017 to be set in stone and marketed so hard that every listener is aware that if they don't switch to digital, their favourite station will go silent.
YES - Ralph Bernard, chairman, Classic FM, Digital One
Yes, I think it is. However, like the old joke about how many psychologists it takes to change a light bulb, the industry really has to want to change.
We are at a critical point in the development of digital radio. Despite the obvious public appetite for digital radio (witness continued strong growth in digital radio sales over the past two years) there are big obstacles to overcome.
There are issues for both the BBC and commercial radio to grapple with and they all centre on finance and commitment. All sides of the industry - BBC, commercial radio, Arqiva and Ofcom - need to agree a workable road map to digital migration. If the problems can be overcome and the broadcast side of the industry fully embraces a migration plan to digital, then 2017 is a perfectly realistic date for switchover. But if there is faltering over the next six months in the planning process, then digital radio may not cross the finish line.
YES - Donnach O'Driscoll, chief executive, Absolute Radio
Obviously switchover is dependent upon digital uptake, but at Absolute Radio we're already seeing 27% of our listening taking place via a digital platform and nearly 40% of all listening to our national service is digital.
It's important the radio industry acts as one, since the costs of transmitting in both analogue and digital are crippling.
The BBC also has a vital role to play - moving its national services over to digital will be crucial to encouraging listeners to follow suit.
We know we'll have to adapt to meet the needs of our listeners. It's clear that the most effective way of letting millions of our listeners simultaneously hear the Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show or Geoff's Hometime Show is via a broadcast mechanism. DAB offers that.
Radio simply cannot ignore digital and retrench if it wants to remain relevant in an otherwise digital world.
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