RAJAR: Almost 17 million people listen to the radio online
One third of the UK’s adult population are now listening to radio via the internet and personalised online music services, according to RAJAR’s latest research.
The radio audience measurement company’s ‘Midas 4’ report reveals that one third of adults, around 16.9 million people, have listened to the radio online, up 5% from 16.1 million in October 2008.
This includes 15.9 million listening to live radio via the internet and 13.8 million listening on listen again services at a later time.
Around 3.9 million people also claim to be users of personalised online radio (POR) services such as Spotify, an increase of one million since October last year, according to RAJAR’s research.
Up to 2.4 million of those use POR at least once a week, up from 1.4 million last October, while the average user of listen again services listens to 1.6 programmes each week.
However, 70% of listen again listeners said the service has “no impact on the amount of live radio to which they listen”, and more than half of listeners claim to tune in to radio programmes that they didn’t previously listen to.
WiFi radio has achieved less success though, with 7.1 million adults claiming to have heard of the standalone radio set that connects wirelessly to the internet and plays online radio services, but only one million adults have one.
Other findings include an increase in listening to Podcasts – 7.8 million people have downloaded a podcast, up from 7.2 million in October 2008, while 4.2 million say they listen to podcasts at least once a week.
Around 76% of podcast users confirmed this had no impact on their live radio listening habits, although just 28% of users find time to listen to all the podcasts they download.
As in previous RAJAR surveys, comedy and music remain the two favourite genres for podcast users, while iTunes continues as the software of choice, used by 70% of podcast users.
RAJAR found that 59% of respondents said they would be interested in downloading podcasts containing advertising if they were free, while only 33% responded positively to the idea of podcasts without adverts that had to be paid for.
Christel Lacaze, research manager at RAJAR, said: “The fourth MIDAS survey clearly reveals that internet delivered audio listening, whether it is listening live, via Listen Again services, via Personalised Online Radio or via Podcasts, continues to grow.
“The most notable findings in this latest survey is the steady rise in those people who claim to have listened to radio via the internet and the 35% increase in POR users since October 2008, albeit from a small base.”
RAJAR’s fourth survey of internet delivered audio services, which was conducted by Ipsos MORI in May 2009, sampled 1,153 RAJAR and MIDAS respondents.