Rajar Q1 2014: Industry reaction

Andy Haylett is Director at Ipsos MediaCT

Research undertaken by Turner in the US uncovered that those who work in the media industry are half as likely as the population as a whole to listen to the radio on an average day. This statistic is compounded by the fact that, from the same study, media types are three times more likely to use tablets – of the digital kind – and nearly four times more likely to use mobile apps.

We are not normal. Who knew?

More precisely, we are not representative of the adult population as a whole and therefore our views may colour real-world, real human experiences and expectations.

The latest set of RAJAR results (Q1 2014) released today, on the face of it, look normal. It reports that 90% of the UK population listen to radio in an average week. Yet, radio’s share of advertising expenditure is around 3%.

Whilst these two polarising statistics have remained fairly constant over recent periods, just like lifting the saucepan lid, there can be quite a lot simmering underneath.

The growth of digital’s share of radio listening is steady, but unremarkable. With the current all radio average digital share at 37% (+7% year-on-year), this rises to 44% among females aged 15-44.

There is, however, a digital divide.

Around two in five (38%) radio listeners listen to AM/FM radio only and no digital radio at all, accounting for a third of all radio listening. We see this in other media too. Around of half of US newspaper readers only read in print and not digital. Humans are analogue by nature and perhaps some of us just ache for things past.

There are over 150 radio stations whose digital listening share is below 20% and whose listeners may feel particularly alienated by the analogue switch-over.

That said, for the first time, we now have more adults listening to the radio via online/apps than they do via their digital television. According to RAJAR’s last set of MIDAS results, 26% of adults have used a radio app, rising to 36% of 15-24 year olds and 44% of 25-34 year olds.

The underlying growth of mobile and out-of-home radio listening is providing the future driver to digital radio listening.

Media people are two and half times more likely to use social media than normal people. Yet data from Ipsos MORI’s Technology Tracker shows just how unrepresentative Twitter is with its heavy skew to affluent 15-24s and away from the less affluent 65+ folk.

I am sure there will come a time when we do not talk about analogue, traditional and digital radio; we just talk about radio. The interplay of mobile, digital, social media makes for interesting times for radio stations as they seek to maximise accessibility and reach. We have to be careful though: a 1,000 retweets does not necessarily mean anything. For quite a few of us, it might mean that Birdsong is back on DAB radio.

Yet, through it all, nine in ten of us still listen to radio in an average week. Radio is still popular and relevant. It always has been. It is just…normal.

Michael Williamson, Head of Radio at Carat

The overall year on year increase to 48.1m weekly listeners once again shows radio is in rude health. Digging deeper into the numbers one of the main catalysts for this growth has been digital radio – both in terms of listening via a digital platform and listener growth for digital only radio stations.

In London, FM and AM radio listening has fallen below 50% for the first time at 48.6%, down 10% year on year in the capital. Nationally, analogue radio listening share is at its lowest ever, at 57.8% of all listening hours.

Q1 has seen the usual annual surge in DAB listening due to DAB radios benefiting from Christmas gifting. DAB’s share of overall listening is 23.7% (up 5% year on year) online/apps is 6.4% (up 27% year on year) and DTV is 5% (flat year on year).

Slowly but surely the conversion from analogue to digital listening is happening which opens up further opportunities for listeners and advertisers. Listeners get greater choice and the growth of niche stations like Planet Rock, Absolute 80’s and Kisstory have grown large audiences in a short space of time.

Advertisers have long been asking for tailoring different creative messages to different radio platforms. The growth of online/mobile/apps listening gives advertisers this opportunity. Radio media owners are developing online streaming opportunities which gives advertisers increased targeting and quicker more direct paths to purchase across traditional radio stations.

This is still in its infancy but by the end of the year we expect there to be several key radio players in the online streaming market (outside of Spotify and iRadio) creating a large valuable audience for advertisers to target.

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