Ofcom Reports Radio Listening Increase

Despite total funding having dipped by more than 2% year on year for the UK radio industry in 2005, listening has risen by 3% in the past five years, according to Ofcom’s latest Communications Market report.

Both national commercial and the BBC picked up listener hours across most age groups, but local commercial radio suffered a dip, particularly amongst the 25-34-year-old age bracket.

According to the report, the BBC managed to increase its share of listening by 55.4% in Q1 2006, up 3.4 percentage points since 2000, and the Corporation’s UK-wide station share exceeded that of all commercial radio in Q3 last year.

GCap Media has a 34% share of all commercial listening, down from 36% in 2004, whilst Emap managed 25% (up from 17%) and Chrysalis took 12% (up from 11%).

GCap also has the largest share of commercial station licences with 22% of the total, up two percentage points on 2004. Emap managed 16% of licences, which was up by six percentage points, whilst the Local Radio Company remained static with 9%.

Ofcom also reports that DAB digital radio set sales exceeded 3 million in the first quarter of this year, with an estimated 11% of UK homes now owning a set, which is up six percentage points on 2004. The communications watchdog also said that it had awarded 16 new FM licences last year, with a further six given out by May this year.

Ofcom: 020 7981 3040 www.ofcom.org.uk