More Australians tuned into live and local commercial radio throughout 2014 than ever before, with an average cumulative audience of 10.1 million people listening each week in metropolitan areas throughout 2014 up 4.13% from 2013.

The listening data, released by industry body Commercial Radio Australia (CRA), is from the commercial radio listening summary, an analysis of the GfK eight ratings surveys in the five capital city markets in 2014, compared with the previous year.

Throughout 2014, in the metropolitan capital cities more than 7.3 million people listened to commercial radio during breakfast each week (Mon-Fri) and almost 6.8 million people listened during drive time (Mon –Fri).   From 7pm to 12midnight (Evening) each week, nearly 4.2 million people listen to commercial radio in the five metropolitan capital cities.

Chief executive officer of CRA, Joan Warner said, 2014 was an outstanding year for commercial radio with heightened awareness across the country.

“This year again promises to be an exciting contest between networks with rebrands and new lineups across markets. 2014 showed breakfast was the most popular time slot but the drive slot is not far behind,” said Warner.

Figures show commercial radio listening amongst 25-39 year olds has grown the most in 2014 with 80% now choosing commercial radio. At work listening increased across most demographics but in particular the 25-39 and 40-54 age groups. The data shows that home was still the main place of listening in 2014, accounting for 46% of all commercial radio listening, while listening in the car was 33%, at work 19% and 2% elsewhere.

DAB+ listening continues to outperform expectations. Three million people are now listening each week to DAB+ digital radio in the five metropolitan capitals, 1.3 million more listen via broadcast DAB+ than listen to radio via streaming and the DAB+ listeners listen for twice as long. There are now over 23% of people in the five state capitals where DAB+ is available, listening on a DAB+ digital radio device.

Advertising revenue for metropolitan commercial radio stations also showed growth for the fourth month in a row and was up 2.64% in December 2014 to $55.401 million, according to the metropolitan commercial radio ad revenue, sourced by Deloitte and released by industry body Commercial Radio Australia (CRA). The six month financial year 2014–2015 Metropolitan Commercial Radio Advertising Revenue figures show that ad revenue is up 5.03% to $373.570 million for the five markets.

Combined revenue of metropolitan and regional radio sourced from Commercial Economic Advisory Service of Australia (CEASA) indicate for the financial year ended June 2014, combined radio revenue is up by 1.14% to $1.031 billion.  The CEASA report for financial year also highlighted that radio’s total share of Advertising by Media was 8.0%.

“Australian listeners and advertisers continue to support commercial radio around the country and the industry is gearing up for another exciting year,” said Warner.

Survey 1, 2015 began on 18 January and results will be released by GfK on Tuesday 10 March 2015. Media should register at the GfK website here to receive radio audience survey summaries in 2015.

Sources: GfK – Radio Ratings Survey 1 to 8, 2014   and Nielsen Survey 1 to 8, 2013. 5 metro markets. Total People 10+, Mon-Sun midnight to midnight unless stated otherwise. Deloitte figures report actual revenue received by metropolitan commercial radio stations in the five markets for the calendar month and include all metropolitan agency and direct revenue. CEASA figures report both regional and metropolitan commercial radio ad revenue.