According to RAJAR Q2 2014 listening figures released on Wednesday July 30, radio listening to analog stations has fallen to its lowest ever share at 56.6 percent in Q2 2014, down from 58.6 percent in Q2 2013.
The report points out that digital listening remains flat year on year at 36.8 percent, but unaccounted-for listening has increased from 4.6 percent to 6.6 percent, says Digital Radio UK. In the last 12 months, digital-only stations have consolidated their overall listening but not shown strong growth. Over half of the population (51.4 percent or 27.5 million people) now listens to digital radio platforms each week.
With DAB listening in-car driving DAB growth, DAB remains the most popular platform for digital listening, boasting 237 million hours, up 1 percent year on year.
In-car listening accounts for 22 percent of listening hours, and 11.7 percent of in-car hours are now listened to on digital, up 12 percent year on year. A record 6.7 million people now listen to digital radio in their car each week, an increase of 490,000 people year on year. According to RAJAR, over half a million people listen to radio via their smartphone in their car each week.
This coincides with Q2 2014 figures from CAP/SMMT, which show that 55 percent of new cars now have digital radio as standard and that 1.2 million cars in the last year have been fitted with DAB digital radio. Digital Radio UK estimates that now around 9 percent of cars now have digital radio.
Online/apps listening hours are up 2 percent year on year and radio listening on digital TVs declined by 10 percent, coinciding with changes to electronic program guide (EPG) layouts.
Ownership of DAB digital radios continues to grow with 48.5 percent of the population or 26 million adults now having access to a DAB digital radio, up 7 percent year on year. In home, analog listening share has now fallen to 45.6 percent from 48.4 percent in Q2 2013, and is nearly equal with digital listening share (45.1 percent).
