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RAJAR: Digital radio take-up increasing

Take-up of digital radio increased by 32% year on year during Q3, according to RAJAR, with nearly one-third of UK adults now living in a household with a DAB set.

According to the radio audience measuring body Q3 data, 28.7% of those aged 15+ claim to live in a household which has a DAB receiver – an increase of 32% year on year from 21.7% in Q3 2007.

However, the problem for commercial radio is that the vast majority of digital listening is to stations already available on analogue, and to digital-only stations provided by the BBC.

The latest figures come less than a week after Channel 4 reported it was pulling the plug on its entire digital radio project. The future of the second wave of national DAB stations is now in serious doubt.

Radio listening via a digital platform has increased both year on year and quarter on quarter. Data collected for Q3, 2008 reveals that 18.7% of all radio listening is now via a digital platform (cf. 15% in Q3, 2007), with listening via DAB leading the increase.
-11.3% is via DAB (8.6% in Q3, 2007)
-3.2 is via DTV (3% in Q3, 2007)
-2.2% is via the Internet (1.6% in Q3, 2007)

Radio listening via mobile phone is also rising steadily. The number of adults (15+) who claim to have listened to the radio via a mobile phone has increased from 9.2% in Q3, 2007 to 12.7% in Q3, 2008.