Latest Rajar Figures - Commercial Radio Stations Reach Record Audiences

9/10/2019 10:34 AM

The latest second quarter figures for 2019 demonstrate the clear audience value of radio as Rajar reveals that 89% of the UK adult population (48.8 million people) listen to a radio station each week, representing over 1 billion listening hours.

The Outlook

The digital share of radio listening also continues to grow and now accounts for a majority share of 56% of the UK population. Much of this digital listening took place on DAB devices (69%) equaling over 569 million hours every week, whilst online accounted 22% of the digital figures.

It is probably no great surprise that smartphone listening was at an all time high for adults (27.5%) although interestingly there was a marked decline in 15-24s listening from a high of 39% in 2016 to 31.5% in 2019. The figures also reflect a rise in voice-activated technology with 26% of adults now claiming to use these speakers to access commercial stations.

The overall share of listeners tuning in online and via apps has also increased dramatically (up over a third) and commercial stations now have a combined audience of over 36 million listeners which breaks the record set in the last quarter.

These commercial gains however spell bad news for the BBC who have seen a loss of 400,000 listeners period on period, with especially stark declines in the 45+ age bracket.

To read more click here to view more details on The Drum.

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