Rajar Q4 2018: digital

According to the latest Rajar results for Q4 2018, digital radio has continued to grow – and now encompasses 52.6% of all radio listening.

That represents an increase of 0.2 percentage points quarter-on-quarter and a 3% growth year-on-year.

63% of the adult population aged 15+ are tuning in to digital radio devices every week – including DAB radios, digital TV (DTV), online and apps – which amounted last quarter to a weekly average of 527 million digital hours.

Of those hours, 38.3% of listening was on DAB radios, 5% on DTV and 9.4% online or via apps. In car digital listening is also on the rise – reaching a new record share of 37.5% of all in car listening.

Now over 50% for four consecutive quarters, digital listening is at record levels across BBC and commercial stations, accounting for 51.5% of all BBC radio and 53.9% of commercial radio listening.

Commercial radio’s digital share has increased as the availability and number of digitally distributed national commercial stations continues to grow.

The most popular digital-only station remains BBC 6 Music with a weekly reach of 2.3 million listeners, with Radio 4 Extra regaining the second most popular spot, growing to 2.1m listeners.

KISSTORY is the most popular commercial digital-only station, with a weekly reach of 1.8 million listeners.

“Q4 2018 marks the fourth quarter in a row when digital listening has been above 50%,” said Ford Ennals, CEO of Digital Radio UK.

“The growth of digital listening and launch of new digital stations is providing a platform for growth for all broadcasters and we welcome the increasing levels of digital radio content innovation and investment. We look forward to the listening data for Q1 2019 which will reflect the massive surge in smart speaker sales and usage post-Christmas and the impact of the new stations and schedules launched in January.”