The fast/slow growth of digital radio

The new RAJAR radio research figures are out – and you’ll read two sets of stories today regarding digital radio.

1. “Digital radio listening is up, and wow! Over the last quarter, the total amount of people who use digital radio (DTV, DAB, Internet) each week is now almost half of the entire population – 49.4% – up from 43.9% just a quarter ago.”

2. “Digital radio listening is up: but painfully slowly. Over the last quarter, total radio listening on digital (DTV, DAB, Internet) has increased less than a percentage point – up from 28.2% to 29.1% – a less-than one percentage point increase.”

If the above looks a little confusing to you, welcome to the difference between reach and share. There’s no doubt that digital radio continues to increase its reach – the amount of people who tune in for at least five minutes in a week – but it’s not massively increasing its share of listening – the length of time people tune into radio on a digital platform in comparison to all radio. So why is this?

Around 20% of all radio listening is done in the car: and, chances are you can’t listen to digital there. Radio via DTV in a car is clearly a fanciful notion; radio over the internet via a mobile phone is a costly and unpleasantly inconsistent experience; and most cars bought in the UK still don’t have DAB as standard. (It’s becoming more common for new cars – 17% had it in 2011 versus 4% in 2010 according to some unsourced stats I have; but most cars bought in the UK aren’t new). Until we have in-car DAB sets as standard in used cars as well as new cars, there’s no way to get that 20% as digital listening.

The average home, too, has – depending which research you read – around six radio sets. The majority of radio listening actually occurs on less: probably two – but it’s probably not the case that all have been switched to digital. I might have bought a new DAB set for the kitchen, but if my bedside radio remains analogue, then much of my radio listening is still analogue.

Looking closer at the different digital platforms is instructive. Listening via the internet is a comparatively disappointing 10% year-on-year, and still remains the least popular way of listening to radio on new platforms. Listening via DTV – in a year where many people have been forced off analogue television to digital networks that all include radio – has only increased 5%; yet radio over the telly continues to be much more popular than internet radio.

But the interesting part is that listening via DAB has increased by 21% year on year. It remains the major contributor to the growth of digital radio. It’s also different from the rest, in that it requires people to go out and buy new equipment, rather than “get radio free” in a new laptop or telly. At a time of recession, monetary crisis in Europe and doom-mongering from economists, it’s surprising and heartening that DAB’s listening has increased in the way that it has: and, once more, outstripped the other new platforms.

And the best bit? These are Q4 2011 figures: they don’t go past Christmas; so don’t include the full effect of the advertising campaigns for digital radio on commercial radio and the BBC; don’t include the rejuvenated Digital Radio brand identity; and don’t include the knock-on increases in digital radio listening from digital radio sets given as Christmas presents.

So, even pre-Christmas, the amount of people listening to digital radio is dramatically up: by 10% year on year. And in spite of a recession and a consumer electronics downturn, people are buying DAB Digital Radio sets, and using them to listen to radio longer.

If that’s not a good news story for digital radio, what is?