Digital radio hits the big 50

The latest set of RAJAR results for Q1 2013 report, along with the usual ups and downs, a potentially seminal moment in the life of digital radio. Half of the UK adult population now listens to the radio on a digital platform.

Unfortunately this is not ‘the’ 50% that has been touted by the Government as the tipping point for any digital switch over. That is triggered by total hours – the amount of listening digitally instead of the number of people.

Currently, 34% of all radio hours are consumed via a digital platform, which is an increase of 4% on the previous period and 17% compared to this time last year, so this measure is definitely continuing to grow.

This increase is likely to have been fuelled by the seasonal growth in the number of households with a DAB set that, traditionally, comes with the first release of each year. There is still an appetite for DAB radios particularly over Christmas.

Over the course of 2012, RAJAR shows that the number of DAB owners hovered around the 22 million mark (around 42% of the UK population), however the number has increased by just over one million from Q4, and now stands at 23.2 million (44%).

I’m not entirely convinced that this is a result of lovingly-wrapped DAB sets sitting under a million Christmas trees (although I got a very nice wifi radio for Christmas a couple of years ago), but maybe the gradual reduction in price over the last few years combined with the January sales has helped.

Moreover, the number of cars coming with DAB as standard has significantly increased, while I imagine not many people get a new car for Christmas, it’s likely that this will be contributing in some way.

It may well be that a shiny new DAB was the Christmas present of choice a few years ago when I got mine, but looking at the growth in tablet ownership (which, according to the Ipsos MediaCT Technology Tracker, increased from 14% to 25% from Q4 12 to Q1 13), maybe it’s now a case of downloading a free radio app to a new tablet which is helping to up the overall digital listening numbers.

Indeed, for the first time we now see that a greater number of hours of radio are listened to online or via an app (51.9 million hours) than on DTV (51.3 million).

Meanwhile, the amount of listening via online or apps is actually increasing at nearly twice the rate of other digital platforms, having added 10 million hours – a 24% increase since this time last year.

This compares to around 15% increases for DAB and total digital overall.

As tablets become cheaper and more accessible, smartphones continue to become more widespread, connectivity becomes more all-encompassing, and 4G is rolled out over time, I expect that this trend will continue over the coming quarters.

I have just one further observation on this. It is still worth noting that while digital listening is increasing in terms of hours and reach, AM/FM is still listened to by 78% of the UK population.

The number of hours recorded are reducing consistently, but over 40 million people continue to listen on an analogue platform during every quarter of the last 12 months.

In Q1 2013, these listeners accounted for 61% of all hours, again, a number consistent over 2012.

So, the digital numbers are growing, things are being done to continue this combined with changes to consumer behaviour and mobile device usage which are naturally helping to move things on.

However, while one 50% mark has been achieved, which is an important moment, the other bigger 50% challenge remains.

Andy Haylett is the Survey Director for Ipsos MORI