Digital platforms increase radio reach

[BGonaSTICK]

Nearly 13% of all radio listening was via a digital platform in the second quarter of 2007, according to official radio ratings body Rajar. Rajar's new method of measuring listening, introduced in January, found that 136m hours of listening per week was via digital audio broadcasting (DAB), digital television (DTV) and the internet.

"Overall listening to digital only services is growing quickly, from 905,000 listeners in Q2, 2003 to 6.09m in Q2, 2007, and during an average week 26.2% of the population (adults 15+) now listen to radio via a digital platform," said Rajar.

Of the digital platform share of 12.8%, DAB took 7% and DTV 2.6%.

Rajar's research also found that the number of mobile phone owners (aged 15+) who claim to have listened to the radio via a mobile phone has risen 27% year on year (7.0% in Q2, 2006) to 8.9%.

In addition, over a quarter of 15-24-year-old mobile phone owners (1.8m) say they have listened to the radio in this way, a rise of 25% year-on-year. At the same time 2.7m adults said they had used MP3 players to listen to a podcast, a rise of 40%, from 1.9m in Q2, 2006.