Radio’s listening and revenue increases

This week there were two pieces of positive news for commercial radio in the UK.

Ofcom published its annual Communications Market Report, the most comprehensive study of the UK’s TV, radio, broadband, telecoms and postal industries. National advertising revenue for commercial stations has grown by 17.3%. The increase in commercial radio revenues has been driven by growth in net national advertising revenue: from £207m to £243m. Some 89.5% tuned into the radio in 2014 and spent just over three hours listening each day. Radio is still the most popular medium for discovering new music, even for the 16-24s. Among regular music listeners aged 16-24, streaming services are as popular as radio stations.

The Q2 2015 RAJAR results were also released. In summary radio listening is growing; 90% of the population listen to radio each week (up from 89% last quarter). 34.6 million people listen to commercial radio, a 2% increase on the same quarter of 2014. 44.4% of all listening is to commercial radio and 53% to BBC radio.