MUMBAI: The Radio Joint Audience Research Limited (RAJAR) has released figures for Q1, 2011, which reports that 47.3 million adults or 91.6% of the UK population (15+) tune in to their favorite radio stations each week. This figure is up by over three quarters of a million listeners in comparison with a year ago (c.f 46.5 million in Q1, 2010).
The total number of radio listening hours has reached 1,058 million hours per week or 22.4 hours per listener (c.f. 1,045 million hours in Q4, 2010).
Listening to radio via a digital platform in terms of weekly reach has increased by 12.8%, with 22.3 million people now tuning in to radio via digitally enabled receiver each week (up from 19.7 million in Q1, 2010). This increase is reflected in the digital listening hours for Q1, 2011 which are up 15.4% from 243 million hours in Q1, 2010 to 280 million hours this quarter.
DAB radio retains its position as the most popular device when it comes to listening to digital radio, accounting for 63.1% of all digital hours, however listening via DTV (digital television) and more particularly internet, have both continued to rise, (hours up by 7.1% and 28.3% respectively) albeit from a smaller base.
The share of radio listening via a digital platform has increased from 24% in Q1, 2010 to 26.5%, in Q1 2011 and now accounts for more than one quarter of all radio listening, with internet listening increasing its share from 2.9% in Q1 2010 to reach 3.6% this quarter.
RAJAR’s latest research reveals that access to a DAB receiver is up 11.2% and is nearly three times the level of five years ago. In Q1, 2011 almost two in five of the population (38.2%), or 19.7 million adults (aged 15+) claimed to live in a household which has a DAB set (c.f. 17.7 million in Q1, 2010 and 6.7 million in Q1, 2006).