RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research Ltd) has released the UK radio audience figures for the first quarter of 2008. Radio listening has risen one percentage point to 90% of the UK population. Weekly listening has increased slightly year on year by 366,000 (from 45,031,000 in Q1, 2007 to 45,397,000 in Q1, 2008), and is up nearly half a million (445,000) quarter on quarter.
Radio listening via digital platforms
Radio listening via a digital platform continues to grow steadily. Data collected this quarter reveals that 17.8% of all radio listening is now via a digital platform, of which
- 10.8% is via DAB
- 3.2% is via DTV
- 2.1% is via the Internet
Almost one third (31% of the population*) listen to radio via a digital platform every week. This gradual move to digital is also reflected in the digital listening hours for Q1, 2008 which have increased - up 9% to 184 million hours per week, with listening via DAB once again showing the most substantial increase - up 10% to over 110 million hours quarter on quarter.
RAJAR research once again shows a solid increase in DAB set ownership with 27.3% of adults (15+) in Q1, 2008 claiming to own a DAB receiver. This is a 40% increase year on year (19.5% in Q1, 2007) and a rise on Quarter 4, 2007 of 22%.
Radio listening via mobile phone continues to rise. The number of adults (15+) who claim to have listened to the radio via a mobile phone has increased from 8% in Q1, 2007 to 11.6% in Q1, 2008; while the number of 15 to 24-year-olds who say they have listened to the radio in this way has also increased year on year (20.3% in Q1, 2007 vs. 27.3% in Q1, 2008).
* This weekly reach figure 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.
Detailed data and individual radio station data, for both BBC and Commercial Radio stations, is available on the RAJAR web site at www.rajar.co.uk.
on May 1st, 2008 at 11:43
Yes but how many of them listen in their cars on a digital radio? At times some stations have 70% of their audiance in cars, so campaigning for DAB and switching off the AM/FM tansmitters is like turkeys voting for thanksgiving (In english that would be “Chickens voting for christmas”, but this is a world site)
on May 1st, 2008 at 14:09
Switching off analogue AM/FM is like forbidding and banning papers to publish in print. Internet is the modern way to do this and is a lot better for the environment.
Will print ever disappear?
Will analogue ever disappear?
on May 1st, 2008 at 15:30
But the same problem with DAB digital listening whether at home or in cars is that reception is sometimes woolly and patchy especially in some hilly and/or built up areas of the UK and in country/rural areas with little/no signal/patchy signal;the familiar unpleasant bubbling mud noise making itself evident if your signal isn\’t good. AM and FM stations although they have their reception problems;AM inteference/fading at night on MW/LW and constant signal skipping and fading on SW,inteference from buildings when driving on FM and multipath fading/distortion with home listening with inadequate antennas/poor reception areas, are much better than DAB. Dsat radio services are only available with suitable satellite antennae and reception equipment. Dcab radio services are only available to cable subscribers. DTT delivery is only available to Freeview viewers in the UK and DTT services abroad in countries which operate it. Internet radio is only available to WiFi portable radio users,WiFi laptop users and home/internet cafe broadband connections. Analogue should not turned off unless content and quality of delivery improve.
on May 9th, 2008 at 12:55
Unless new cars come fitted with DAB radios as standard, it will be a long time before DAB listening filters through to the ordinary motorists.
Most of these ordinary motorists are ordinary radio listeners and as such DAB stations lose out the minute they step into their cars.
I had high hopes for Ford cars but, even they are sticking with AM/FM. MP3 CD players are more common now, another nail in the DAB coffin.