Radio Listening Breaks Record for Second Quarter to Reach all Time High of 46.8 Million Listeners

Radio Listening Breaks Record for Second Quarter to Reach all Time High of 46.8 Million Listeners

LONDON, August 5, 2010/PRNewswire/ --

- Digital radio listening share up 17% year on year
- Digital radio listening weekly reach up 11% year on year
- DAB ownership up 7.6% year on year to over 18 million adults

Radio listening in the UK has broken the previous record, set
in Q1, 2010, to reach an all time high of 46.8 million adults, or 90.6% of
the UK population (15+), tuning in to their favourite radio stations each
week* it was revealed today, August 5, 2010, when UK radio audience data for
Quarter 2, 2010 was released by RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research Ltd).
This figure is up year on year by almost half a million listeners (cf. 46.3
million in Q2, 2009) and also up nearly 300,000 listeners quarter on quarter
(cf. 46.5 million in Q1, 2010): it is the highest weekly reach ever recorded
since new research methodology was introduced in January 1999.

Radio listening via digital platforms: Share of radio
listening via a digital platform has increased by 17% year on year to 24.6%
(cf. 21.1% in Q2, 2009). DAB radio maintains its position as the most popular
device when it comes to listening to digital radio, however listening via DTV
(digital television) and Internet have both continued to rise substantially
year on year, albeit from a small base.

- DAB listening share is 15.8% (13.1% in Q2, 2009 - up 20%)
- DTV listening share is 4.1% (3.6% in Q2, 2009 - up 12%)
- Internet listening share is 2.9% (2.2% in Q2, 2009 - up 33%)

Digital listening: Listening to radio via a digital platform
in terms of weekly reach has also increased by 11% year on year, with 20
million people now tuning in to radio via a digitally enabled receiver each
week (up from 18 million in Q2, 2009). This is also reflected in the digital
listening hours for Q2, 2010 which now total 253 million hours per week, up
17% from 217 million hours in Q2, 2009.

DAB ownership: RAJAR's latest research shows that DAB set
ownership has increased by 7.6% year on year, with over one third of the
population or 18.2 million adults (aged 15+) in Q2, 2010 now claiming to live
in a household which has a DAB receiver. (cf. 16.9 million in Q2, 2009).

Radio listening via mobile phone: Radio listening via mobile
phone remains steady with 12.5% of adults aged 15+ in Q2, 2010 claiming to
have listened to radio via their mobile phone. In the 15-24 year demographic
29.8% claim they have listened to the radio in this way; and 14% say they
listen at least once a week, while 2.6% say they listen every day. In the 25+
demographic 9.2% of adults claim to listen to the radio via their mobile
phone. (Please note: In Q1, 2010 RAJAR introduced a number of changes to the
self-completion questionnaire which impacted on questions regarding mobile
phone listening: therefore caution should be used when comparing Q2, 2010
with similar data from previous years.)

Detailed data and individual radio station data, for both BBC
and Commercial Radio stations, is available on the RAJAR web site at
http://www.rajar.co.uk from 00.01hours, Thursday August 5, 2010.

* This weekly reach figure is the number of people (adults
15+) in the UK who listened to a radio station for at least five minutes in
the course of an average week during the quarter.

Source: RAJAR

For further information please contact: Penelope James, Penelope James Public Relations, Tel: +44(0)1303-844555, Mobile: +44(0)7860-162-231, E-mail: penelope@penelopejamespr.com

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