LONDON, February 3, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --
- Listening to Radio as Popular as Ever With Over 90% of the Population Tuning in Each Week
- 90.5% of UK population tune in to radio every week
- One quarter of radio listening is now via a digital receiver
- Digital radio listening hours up 26.9% year on year
- Access to a DAB receiver up 7.9% year on year to 18.5 million adults
- Share of listening via the internet breaks 3% barrier
Radio listening is as popular as ever and remains high following its record breaking 46.8 million listeners reported last August 2010. Radio listening figures announced today by RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research Ltd) reveal that 46.7 million adults, or 90.5% of the UK population (15+), continued to tune in to their favourite radio stations each week* during Q4, 2010. This figure is up year on year by more than three quarters of a million listeners or 1.7% (c.f. 46 million in Q4, 2009).
Radio listening via digital platforms Listening to radio via a digital platform in terms of weekly reach* has increased by 22.1% year on year, with 20.9 million people now tuning in to radio via a digitally enabled receiver each week (up from 17.1 million in Q4, 2009).
This increase is reflected in the digital listening hours for Q4, 2010 which are up 26.9% from 206 million hours in Q4, 2009 to 262 million hours this quarter.
As ever, DAB radio continues to maintain its position as the most popular device when it comes to listening to digital radio, accounting for 63.2% of all digital hours, however listening via DTV (digital television) and internet, have both continued to rise substantially year on year, (hours up by 36.6% and 54.9% respectively) albeit from a smaller base, with share of internet listening breaking through the 3% barrier for the first time.
- DAB hours are 166 million (136m in Q4, 2009 - up 22%)
- DTV hours are 45 million (33m in Q4, 2009 - up 36.6%)
- Internet hours are 32 million (21m in Q4, 2009 - up 54.9%)
The significant rise in reach and hours is also reflected in the share of radio listening via a digital platform, which has increased by almost 20% (from 20.9% in Q4 2009 to 25%, in Q4 2010) and now accounts for one quarter of all radio listening.
Access to a DAB receiver
RAJAR's latest research shows access to a DAB receiver is up 7.9% year on year. Over one third of the population, or 18.5 million adults (aged 15+) in Q4, 2010, now claim to live in a household which has a DAB set. (c.f. 17.1 million in Q4, 2009).
Radio listening via mobile phone
Radio listening via mobile phone has increased by 4.1% quarter on quarter with 13.3% of adults aged 15+ in Q4, 2010 saying they have listened to radio via their mobile phone (c.f. 12.8% in Q3, 2010). In the 15-24 year demographic listening remains stable with 30.7% claiming to have listened to the radio in this way: 14.9% say they listen at least once a week, while 3.6% say they listen every day, up from 2.3% in Q3, 2010. In the 25+ demographic 10% of adults say they have listened to the radio via their mobile phone. (In Q1, 2010 RAJAR introduced a number of changes to the self-completion questionnaire which impacted on questions regarding mobile phone listening: therefore caution should be used when comparing with similar data from previous years.)
Detailed data and individual radio station data, for both BBC and Commercial Radio stations, is available on the RAJAR web site at http://www.rajar.co.uk from 00.01hours, Thursday February 3, 2011.
* Weekly reach is the number of people (adults 15+) in the UK who listened to a radio station for at least five minutes in the course of an average week during the quarter.
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