The findings of RAJAR's latest research suggests an increase in the number of people listening to radio through smartphone apps, with 2.2 million claiming to have downloaded one.
That's up from 1.4 million when a similar survey was done six months ago, and the latest figures also show 13 percent of the population have listened to radio through a mobile phone.
Last month RAJAR surveyed 1,091 people from their main radio listening research work, who had claimed to listen to the radio via the internet, through their mobile phone or downloaded podcasts.
When multiplied up to represent the UK, the report claims 16.3 million listeners now claim to listen to radio via the internet, 12.7 million adults have used a Listen Again service and 8.1 million adults have downloaded a podcast.
Christel Swift, research manager for RAJAR says: "Listening to radio via smartphones has grown rapidly over the past year or so and this is reflected in the number of people who claim to have downloaded a radio app, which now stands at just over a quarter of smartphone owners. This development is excellent news for radio on the go and represents a real opportunity for the radio industry."
[b]Mobile phone listening[/b]
6.6 million adults aged over 15 have ever listened to the radio via mobile phone. Of those, 53 percent select the station using specific FM preset and 16 percent run an app for a specific radio station. Over a quarter of smartphone owners on the survey (26 percent or 2.2 million adults) have downloaded a radio app and, of those, almost half (44 percent) use their radio apps at least once a week.
[b]Internet listening[/b]
16.3 million (32 percent) of adults claim to have ever listened to the radio via the internet, including 14.7 million who have listened live and 12.7 million who have used time-shifted listening. The majority (72 percent) of listen-again listeners said the service has no impact on the amount of live radio they consume, while half said they are now listening to programmes they'd not previously tuned into. 6.5 million people have heard of WiFi radio but only 2 percent claimed to own one.
[b]Podcast listening[/b]
8.1 million adults (16 percent of the adult 15+ population) claim to have ever downloaded a podcast. Almost half of podcast users claim to listen to podcasts at least once a week but only around a quarter of users find the time to listen to all the podcasts they download. Three-quarters said listening to podcasts had no impact on their live radio listening habits, while 30 percent say that they now listen to radio programmes to which they did not listen previously. The typical podcast user subscribes to just under 5 podcasts, and spent just under an hour in the last week listening to them. As in previous surveys, comedy and music remain the two favourite genres. 77 percent of podcast users listen to podcasts at home, and half listen in the car or on public transport.