Rajar Q1 2017: Digital analysis

Almost 6 in 10 adults (aged 15+) currently listen to radio via a digital platform, according to the latest Rajar results for the first quarter of 2017.

In total, 32 million people now tune in to radio via a digitally enabled receiver – DAB, digital TV or online – each week.

In an average week, digital listening accounts for 483 million hours; DAB has a 71% share of digital listening hours, digital TV 12% and online 17%.

In terms of online social interaction, a consistent 43% of 15-24 year old social media users claim to receive updates about their favourite radio station or presenter, with the figure slightly lower for the general adult population at 30% (a -1% drop since Q4 2016).

25% of UK adults say they listen to radio via a mobile phone or a tablet device, while 9 million adults keep things to themselves and only listen with earphones.

The most popular digital-only station is BBC 6 Music which hit a new record for weekly reach and hours with 2.35 million listeners and 23.4 million hours.

Kisstory re-established itself as the most popular commercial digital-only stations with 1.55 million listeners, while LBC, which is distributed nationally on the Digital One multiplex, increased digital hours by 52% and digital listening share to 56.3% (from 47% in Q1 2016).

Q1 2017 also saw the highest-ever recorded proportion of in-car radio listening, accounting for 23.5% of all radio listening, growth supported by the increase of in-car digital radio with 87% of new cars now fitted with DAB as standard (Q1 2017 CAP/SMMT).

In this quarter, in-car digital listening hours grew by 33% year-on-year to 64.3 million hours from 48.2 million hours in Q1 2016.