Ofcom publishes Digital Radio Report 2012

Ofcom has today published its Digital Radio Report 2012. The report shows that:

• The BBC’s national digital audio broadcasting (DAB) multiplex covers 94.3% of homes, while the national commercial digital multiplex covers 84.6%. Local DAB multiplexes are estimated to cover 66.4%.
• In the 12 months to the end of June 2012, almost three in ten (29.5%) of all radio listening hours were to digital radio, across various platforms. This is a 10 percentage point increase on the same period in 2009 and a 3.6 percentage point increase year on year. For the quarter April-June 2012, 31.5% of all listening hours were to digital radio.
• DAB digital radio sets were the most widely-used method of listening to digital radio, accounting for 64.9% of all digital listening hours in the 12 months to the end of June 2012. Digital TV accounted for 15.6% and online accounted for 13.3%.
• Six stations that are available only through digital platforms had at least 1 million listeners in an average week in Q2 2012. BBC Radio 4 Extra had the largest number of listeners at 1.6 million, followed by BBC 6 Music, which reached 1.4 million listeners.
• Three in ten (29.1%) of all radio sets sold in the 12 months to Q2 2012 included a DAB tuner. A total of 6.7 million radio sets were sold in this period, a fall of 18.3% on the same period last year. Sales of DAB sets remained steady while analogue sales volumes fell by 1.5 million units year on year.
• Over four in ten people (41.7%) claimed ownership of a DAB digital radio at home, an increase of 2.8 percentage points year on year.
• Over one quarter (25.9%) of new cars are now fitted with DAB as standard, more than double the proportion fitted with DAB as standard in Q2 2011.

Following the Government’s Digital Radio Action Plan, published in July 2010, Ofcom was requested to report annually on the availability and take-up of digital radio services. The full Digital Radio Report 2012 is available here.

NOTES FOR EDITORS

1. In the report ‘digital radio’ is used in its broadest sense to include all platforms and technologies that allow listeners to access digital radio services. These platforms include DAB digital radio, digital television, and via the internet (which includes services received on PCs, radio sets and tablet devices with a WiFi connections, and internet-enabled mobile phones).
2. The radio listening figures quoted in this release are sourced from RAJAR. Sales figures are from GfK and the figures on the proportion of cars fitted with DAB as standard comes from the Society of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers and Traders.