Radio listening habit is ingrained in the UK population. Latest Rajar figures show that 9 out of 10 adults tune into the radio every week. The BBC takes the majority of these of these (55%) but commercial radio is stronger with its primary audience, taking a 53% share of 15-44 year olds.
Overall, commercial radio increased its share of listeners in the last 3 months of 2009, showing a slight rise from the previous quarter’s performance from 42.4% to 42.6%. Within this, national commercial radio’s share of overall listening fell back slightly quarter on quarter from 10.9% to 10.4% . Their loss was local commercial radio’s gain as it increased its share of listening from 31.6% to 32.2% both quarter on quarter and year on year.
DAB is gradually advancing with DAB set ownership increasing by 13% year on year and 17.1 million adults claiming to live in a household with a DAB receiver – a third of all adults. Radio listening via all digital platforms has increased 14% yr on yr to 20.9% of all radio listening hours, a 20% increase on the same quarter in 2008 but slightly down on the previous quarter’s figure of 21.1%.
Listening to the radio via mobile phone continues to grow steadily to 13% of all adults compared to 12.3% in the same period in 2009. Interestingly, whilst the younger age group, 15-24, has shown a decrease of 2.1% yr on yr, the 25+ demographic shows a steady increase of 13% yr on yr.
The number of people listening to radio via the internet and on line music-streaming services such as Spotify continues to grow, up 3% from 16.9% to 17.4% from May 2009.
