Rajar Q3 2022: Digital listening remains flat despite smart speaker share growth

Total digital listening hours remained flat from Q2 2022 at 674 million hours. And, while two-thirds of Brits still listen to radio digitally, digital lost listening share from 67.6% to 66.0%.

On the other hand, listening on smart speakers such as Apple’s HomePod and Amazon’s Echo continued to see strong growth. Smart speaker listening now accounts for 13.4% of all radio listening, up from 10.8% in Q2 2022, and over half of total online radio listening (23.6%). In addition, weekly reach on smart speakers increased 6.3 points to 21.6%.

Overall digital reach also saw an increase from 72.9% to 74.0%, led by a significant increase in total online reach (39.9%, up from 27.1%).

The growth in smart speaker listening appears to have come at the expense of other forms, namely websites/apps (listening share down 1.3%), digital TV (down 0.9%), and digital audio broadcasting (down 1.9%).