Drop in digital radio listenership makes platform switchover unlikely

According to RAJAR, people listening on digital platforms - digital audio broadcasting (DAB), digital TV and online - accounted for 20.9 percent of the total radio audience in the last three months of 2009. In the previous quarter it was 21.1 percent.

Now this is bad news because the government's digital economy bill has set the target date of 2015 for the digital radio switchover to begin - one that would only come into force should digital account for 50 percent of listening by 2013. However, the latest RAJAR figures are nowhere close to that.

Here are some discouraging facts: People using digital platforms to listen to radio stations dropped 3 percent sequentially while digital TV listening dropped to 3.4 percent from 3.6 percent in the previous quarter. Listening via mobile phones also dropped from 6.9 million to 6.7 million sequentially.

However, all hope is not lost. According to the latest quarterly data released by RAJAR, listening on digital platforms was up from the corresponding period in 2008 (18.3 percent).

Around 17.1 million people used digital platforms to tune in on to radio stations, RAJAR said, up 5 percent from the same period in 2008.

Furthermore, the data has revealed that listening via the DAB platform accounted for 13.7 percent of all digital listening, up from 13.3 percent sequentially and 11.4 percent in the same period in 2008.

Online radio usage also grew sequentially from 2 percent to 2.1 percent.

RAJAR figures also showed that the number of adults living in a household with a DAB receiver increased by 13 percent in the last year to 17.1 million.

This figure could rise further as the UK's radio industry is planning to kickstart a scheme that would encourage consumers to trade in their analogue sets for digital ones.