Rajar Q4 2024: Share of digital listening dips

Rajar Q4 2024

Total share of digital listening dipped in Q4 and ended roughly flat year on year, according to the latest Rajar figures.

Digital listening accounted for 72.2% of the market, compared with 27.8% share for AM/FM listening. This is down from the previous quarter, when digital accounted for 74.3% of listening, and nearly flat compared with the same period in 2023 (72% digital and 28% AM/FM).

In fact, digital’s weekly reach and total listening hours both fell in Q4 relative to Q3, driven primarily by a rollback in DAB listening. DAB listening hours fell quarter on quarter from 460m to 441m and weekly reach dropped 1.1 percentage point to 62.3%.

Share of smart speaker listening fell slightly during the quarter, too, from 16.9% in Q3 to 16.1% in Q4, although it is still up 1.4 percentage point from the same period in 2023.

However, total online reach ticked up two percentage points to 44% in Q4. Indeed, online listening now accounts for nearly one-third (31.1%) of all commercial radio listening, up nearly three percentage points from Q4 2023 (28.9%).