Digital radio listening continues upward curve

For the first time, more than half of the UK adult population is listening to radio via digital platforms.

DAB radio penetration in UK homes jumped by almost a quarter in three months. During January-March, 13.6% of adults said they had a set at home compared with 11.1% during October-December 2005.

Sales of DAB radios have topped 3m and are predicted by the Digital Radio Development Bureau to reach 4.7m by the end of the year.

Other digital platforms also contributed increases, with the percentage of adults who listen to radio via their TV climbing from 35.8% to 36.5%.

The percentage of adults who listen to the radio via the internet was up from 17.3% to 20.8%. In addition, radio station websites continued to draw new visitors, with 30.7% having visited one compared with 27.9% in the previous quarter.

Radio listening via mobile phone inched up from 6.3% of adults to 6.4% over the quarter.

There are now 22 digital-only radio stations, including national DAB stations Core and Oneword. Their reach was a record 4.43m people, up from 3.9m last quarter, and they notched up 23,972 listening hours, up from 21,543.

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