The commercial radio industry has reported a year on year increase in the number of Australians listening to radio on their mobile phones.
Nearly 2.5 million people, or 17 per cent of the population in the five metro markets, listened to live and local radio through their phones at some point each week in the December quarter, industry body Commercial Radio Australia (CRA) said.
The number of listeners tuning in by mobile increased 25 per cent compared to the same period a year ago. There were also increases in listeners tuning in through PCs and tablets (up 27 per cent to 1.2 million) and smart speakers (up 58 per cent to 1.04 million).
“The data is good news for the industry as it means more Australians are discovering that they can enjoy radio at any time of the day wherever they are across a range of devices and platforms from traditional broadcast to radio apps on smart phones,” CRA chief executive Joan Warner said.
The data was derived from an average of the last three GfK radio audience measurement surveys conducted in 2020 compared to the same period in 2019.
The research found that while broadcast radio continued to be the most common way to access radio, with 83 per cent of people tuning in via AM/FM and 27 per cent via DAB+ digital radio, mobile phones are the third most popular device used to listen to radio.
Around 9 per cent of listeners tuned in via a PC or tablet, and 7 per cent used a smart speaker. The strong growth of 58 per cent in the number of Australians listening via smart speakers was off a smaller base of 662,000 people in 2019.
Warner added: “Broadcast radio remains the core and most important platform for the foreseeable future, but we are seeing some exciting growth in digital and streaming audiences as a result of investments and partnerships in these areas to make radio even more accessible across multiple devices.”
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