Digital radio listening growth slows

Listening to radio via the internet, DAB radios and mobile has grown at a rate of just over 10% year-on-year, taking it from 24% share of all radio listening to 26.5%. During the last quarter, digital radio growth had been closer to 20% year-on-year.

The slowdown comes despite renewed marketing efforts from BBC and commercial radio stakeholders.

Over the Christmas and New Year period advertising featured comedians David Mitchell, Arthur Smith, Hugh Dennis and Sue Perkins pushing a message about the extra functionality and content delivered by digital radio.

The latest figures show that the total number of hours spent listening to the radio via digital channels saw a 15.4% growth year-on-year, with over 280 million hours spent listening to digital radio in the first quarter of this year.

Listening via mobile is now carried out by 13.8% of people, a 10.2% year on year growth. Mobile listening grows considerably for those between the ages of 15-24-years-old, with 28.6% saying they’ve listed to radio in that way.

Overall radio listening reached its highest level ever, with 47.3 million adults, or 91.6% of the population listening to the radio in the first quarter of this year.

This story first appeared on newmediaage.co.uk. For more digital stories and analysis’ from NMA click here now