RAJAR releases latest online radio report

Online radio is on the rise, with one third of the the UK’s adult population now claiming to have listened to the radio via the internet, according to RAJAR’s latest Midas 5 survey.

The report, which was conducted last month by Ipsos MORI, also found that personalised online radio services have enjoyed an increase in take-up, up from 3.9 million to 4.5 million since May 2009.

Christel Lacaze, research manager at RAJAR, said:  “The fifth MIDAS survey shows that Personalised Online Radio is the fastest growing internet delivered audio service, with 4.5 million people now claiming they have used such a service.  Listening to Podcasts and to the radio via the internet (live and using Listen Again services) also continue to grow, but at a reduced pace.”

RAJAR found that in terms of listening via the internet:

• One third (33.9%) of the UK’s adult population (15+) or 17.4 million people claim to have ever listened to the radio via the internet, compared to 16.9 million people in May 2009.  This includes 16.2 million listening live and 13.9 million listening at a later time using Listen Again services.
• 74% of those Listen Again listeners said the service has no impact on the amount of live radio to which they listen; while half said they are now listening to radio programmes to which they did not listen previously. The average user of Listen Again services listened to 1.6 programmes in the previous week.
• 8.3 million adults have heard of WiFi radio (a standalone radio set that connects wirelessly to the internet and is able to play any internet radio service), but just under a million adults claim to own one.
• 57% of internet listeners are men and 47% are aged 15-34 years.

The report also covered listening to Podcasts:

• 8.1 million people have downloaded a podcast (up from 7.8 million in May2009), while 4.4 million say they listen to podcasts at least once a week (up from 4.2 million in May 2009).  However, only 24% find time to listen to all the podcasts they download.
• 78% of podcast users said that listening to podcasts had no impact on their live radio listening habits.
• The typical podcast user subscribes to 5.9 podcasts per week (up from 5.2 podcasts in May 2009) and spent about an hour listening to them in the previous week.  As in the four previous surveys, comedy and music remain the two favourite genres.
• iTunes continues to be the software of choice, used by 75% of podcast users to subscribe to podcasts, while 18% simply download directly from a website via their browser.  79% listen to podcasts on their home computer and 66% listen via a portable audio/mp3 player.
• Podcast users are more likely to be men (65% of users) and in the 15-34s age break (54% of users).
• 83% of podcasts users listen to podcasts that are more than a week old.
• Podcasting appears to have a positive effect on radio listening with 33% saying that they now listen to radio programmes to which they did not listen previously.
• Only 5% of podcasts users have ever paid to subscribe to a podcast.
• 59% of respondents said they would be interested in downloading podcasts containing advertising if they were free, while only 33% responded positively to the idea of podcasts without adverts that had to be paid for.  (These figures have remained stable when compared to similar data reported in MIDAS 3 and MIDAS 4, RAJAR said.)