• Digital listening has increased by 6% year on year to 37.9%.
• DAB listening share has increased by 6% year on year (3% quarter on quarter) and now represents over a quarter of all radio listening (25.2%) and over 30% in home (30.3%).
• DAB listening in car grew by an impressive 29% year on year and total digital reach in car is now 7.6 million people per week.
• 48.9% of the population or 26 million adults now have access to a DAB digital radio, up 7% year on year.
• Analogue radio listening is at its lowest ever level; 56.2% nationally and below 50% in London and the North West regions.
• Digital radio listening in home (46.2%) has overtaken analogue listening (45.6%) for the first time.
• Digital station BBC Radio 6 Music recorded over 2 million (2.08 million) listeners for the first time, ahead of BBC Radio 3 which has 2.03 million listeners across all platforms.
• The national commercial networks – Absolute Radio, Smooth, Kiss, Heart and Capital – all recorded strong digital growth.
• Over half of the population (52%) or nearly 28 million people now listen to radio on a digital platform every week. 6% of listening is not attributed to any platform.
• Internet listening is up 6%, and DTV down -11% year on year, but both internet and TV listening declined quarter on quarter in Q4 2014.
Ford Ennals, CEO of Digital Radio UK, says: “The shift to digital listening continues, with digital listening in home now overtaking analogue listening, and DAB is leading the way. The fact that over 25% of radio listening is now on DAB and the success of the national commercial stations on the Digital One DAB network strongly makes the case for the benefits of the launch of D2 – the second national DAB network.”
The shift in radio listening towards digital continued in Q4 2014, according to RAJAR. Digital listening grew 6% year on year to 37.9% of all listening with strong performance from the DAB platform, which now accounts for over a quarter (25.2%) of all radio listening for the first time.
There was good performance from BBC and commercial digital only stations with strong growth of 9% year on year from stations on the national commercial DAB network Digital One. Digital One is now full and this underlines the benefits to the radio sector and listeners for the launch of the second national commercial DAB network (D2) in 2016.
Analogue radio listening is at its lowest ever level, 56.2%, and in two major regions, London and the North West, analogue listening is below 50% for the first time. In home digital listening has overtaken analogue listening for the first time: digital listening in home is 46.2% and analogue listening in home is 45.6%.
DAB now represents over 30% of listening hours in home. Ownership of DAB digital radios continues to grow with 48.9% of the population, or 26 million adults now having access to a DAB digital radio, up 7% year on year. DAB listening in car is growing and in-car DAB hours are up an impressive 29%. Total digital reach in car is now 7.6 million people per week.
In the Q4 2014 set of RAJARS there was an increase in commercial radio’s share of digital listening. In total commercial radio’s digital hours grew 11% year on year and local commercial digital hours are up 22%.
BBC Radio 6 Music is the leading digital-only station and has a record reach of over 2 million listeners, up 6% year on year. BBC Radio 4 Extra has a record reach of over 1.7 million.
Strong digital reach performances from commercial stations continue:
• The Smooth network is up 41% and has nearly 2 million weekly listeners on digital (1.956 million listeners).
• The Kiss branded stations reached record levels of listening with Kiss Fresh up 18% year to 457,000 and Kisstory up 13% to over 1 million (1.057 million) listeners.
• The reach of Absolute 80s is up is up 20% to 1.4 million listeners, with greater listener loyalty leading to an impressive increase of 42% in listening hours. The reach of sister station Absolute Radio 90s is up 18% to a new record of 670,000.
• Following its launch on Digital One last year, LBC’s digital listening was up 20% year on year.