U-K Radio: Digital Now More Popular Than FM and AM

Radio research body Rajar said 50.9% of all listening in the UK was digital in the first three months of the year, according to the BBC.

That's up from 47.2% a year ago and marks the first time digital has accounted for more than half of radio listening.

It means the government is now likely to consider whether it needs to review the future of FM radio.

However, it seems unlikely that the analogue network will be switched off in the foreseeable future.

There are still plenty of black spots for the main digital system, DAB, while about one third of listening by young people is now via phones, which means the development of 5G technology could again transform the industry.

The BBC has said it is fully committed to digital, but that switching off FM in the next few years would be premature.

The government has previously indicated it would undertake a review to assess digital radio progress and determine the next steps once more than half of listeners were consuming radio on digital platforms.

Overall, digital listening hours grew by 7.8% compared to Q1 2017. The greatest amount of digital listening takes place on a DAB radio which now accounts for 36.8% of all listening and 72.2% of digital listening, with hourly growth of 8.9% year on year. Online and Apps now accounts for 9.3% of all listening and 18.3% of digital listening, with the greatest percentage hourly growth of 17%. Listening via digital TV meanwhile accounts 4.8% of all listening and 9.4% of digital listening.

63.7% of adults now have access to DAB digital radio at home, plus millions more are listening via the expanding range of smart and voice-controlled speakers. Additionally digital radio is in over 11 million cars on the road, equating to 33% of all cars in the UK, and 90% of all new cars registered have digital radio fitted as standard.