Online radio listeners grows to 9.4m a week

Some 9.4m people listen to radio via the internet each week, according to the latest Rajar survey.

Rajar's second 'Podcasting and Radio Listening Via Internet Survey' found listeners who tuned in live or through a listen again service weekly during April and May had increased from 8.1m in November.

Some 14.5m people claim to have listened to radio via the Internet, up from 12m in November.

The findings revealed the average user of Listen Again services listens to 1.8 programmes each week and almost half of these listeners now tune in to radio programmes they did not previously listen to.

Podcast listening is also on the rise, 6m people have downloaded a podcast, up from 4.3m, and 3.7m claim to listen to a podcast each week, up from 1.87m in November.

The average podcast user subscribes to 3.6 podcasts and spends more than one hour listening to them.

iTunes is used by almost three quarters of Podcast users with just one fifth downloading direct from a website. But, 79% of podcast users listen on their home computer and 66% listen via a portable MP3 player.

Some 15% of podcast users claim to listen to more live radio than before they downloaded programme, but 10% claim to listen to less and 39% said they now tune in to radio programmes they did not previously listen to.

More than half (53%) of respondent said they would be interested in downloading free podcasts, which contained advertising. 

www.nma.co.uk | Danielle Long | 2008-07-02