Rajar Q1 2023: Commercial radio online listening surpasses analogue for first time

According to the latest Rajar radio audience data, online listening share on commercial radio reached 28% in Q1 2023 surpassing analogue listening (27%) for the first time.

Total online listening share now stands at 24.4%, a slight increase from last quarter’s 24.1%, and a two percentage point rise on the first quarter of last year.

Combined digital listening share now represents almost 68% of all radio listening. Its listening share actually fell from 67.9% in Q1 2022 to 66.6% at the end of last year, but then experienced a slight uptick to reach 67.6% in first quarter of 2023.

DAB made the greatest contribution to combined digital listening standing at 39.8% as of Q1 2023, however this represents a decline of 1.3 percentage points on the same period last year.

The audience data also showed that listening on smart speakers continues to grow, accounting for 14% of listening in Q1 2023 and rising from 10% in Q1 2022. In fact, smart speakers’ listening share now represents over half of all online radio listening.

Overall, 49.4 million people, representing 88% of the population, tuned in weekly for Q1 2023, with commercial radio reaching 38.7 million listeners per week.