Another growth period for digital radio in Q4 RAJAR results

RAJAR Q4 2016The Q4 RAJAR data showed another period where overall radio listening held static, but digital radio grew. In the final quarter of 2016, 48.7 million adults, or 90.1% of the adult population, listened to radio stations each week. That share has hovered around or just above 90% since at least 2011. The figure was similar in the third quarter results as well. An average listener hears about 21.5 hours of live radio a week.

In contrast, the share of digital listening has been slowly but steadily growing. For Q4 2016, the portion was 45.2%, up from 41.7% in the same period of 2015 and 37.9% in 2014. More than half the adult population (58%) is listening to digital radio each week. DAB sets continue to be the source of the majority of digital listening hours, and reported ownership of the sets is up 6% to 31 million.

Anna Washenko