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Week ending July 4, 2009

RAJAR PUBLISHES FINDINGS OF MIDAS 4 - July 3, 2009
from Penelope James for RAJAR

RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research Ltd) releases findings of its fourth survey of internet delivered audio services today, July 3, 2009, and reveals that one third of the UK’s adult population now claim to have listened to the radio via the internet and that the number of users of Personalised Online Radio has increased from 2.9 million to 3.9 million since October 2008. In addition, 7.1 million adults now claim to have heard of WiFi radio.

The RAJAR Measurement of Internet Delivered Audio Services (MIDAS 4) was conducted during May 2009 by Ipsos MORI. The sample consisted of RAJAR respondents drawn from the main RAJAR survey over the previous 6 months, who had claimed to listen to the radio via the internet or downloaded podcasts, alongside respondents from the three previous MIDAS surveys (conducted in October 2007, May 2008 and October 2008). The survey findings are based on the responses of 1,153 respondents.

Christel Lacaze, research manager, RAJAR comments:

“The fourth MIDAS survey clearly reveals that internet delivered audio listening, whether it is listening live, via Listen Again services, via Personalised Online Radio or via Podcasts, continues to grow. The most notable findings in this latest survey is the steady rise in those people who claim to have listened to radio via the internet and the 35% increase in POR users since October 2008, albeit from a small base.

Top line findings:

Listening via the Internet

One third (33%) of the UK’s adult population or 16.9 million people claim to have ever listened to the radio via the internet compared with 16.1 million people in October ‘08 and 14.5 million people in May ‘08. This includes 15.9 million listening live and 13.8 million listening at a later time using Listen Again services.

Awareness of Personalised Online Radio increased from 6.4 million to 7 million, and 3.9 million people now claim to have used a Personalised Online Radio (up from 2.9 million in October ’08). 2.4 million people claim to use POR at least once a week (up from 1.4 million in October ’08). The average user of Listen Again services listens to 1.6 programmes each week.

70% of those Listen Again listeners said the service has no impact on the amount of live radio to which they listen; while over half said they are now listening to radio programmes to which they did not listen previously.

7.1 million adults have heard of WiFi radio (a standalone radio set that connects wirelessly to the internet and is able to play any internet radio service), but only a million adults claim to own one.

Listening to Podcasts

7.8 million people have downloaded a podcast (up from 7.2 million in October ’08 and 6 million in May ’08), while 4.2 million say they listen to podcasts at least once a week (up from 4.1 million in October ’08 and 3.7 million in May ‘08). However, only 28% find time to listen to all the podcasts they download.

76% of podcast users said that listening to podcasts had no impact on their live radio listening habits.

The typical podcast user subscribes to 5.2 podcasts per week (up from 4.4 podcasts in October ’08) and spent just over an hour listening to them in the previous week. As in the three previous surveys, comedy and music remain the two favourite genres.

iTunes continues as the software of choice, used by almost 70% of podcast users to subscribe to podcasts, while 16% simply download directly from a website via their browser. 76% listen to podcasts on their home computer and 64% listen via a portable audio/mp3 player. (These figures have remained stable when compared to similar data revealed in MIDAS 3.)

Podcast listening occurs throughout the day, with an evening peak when 37% of podcast users press the play button (weekdays).

77% of podcasts users listen to podcasts that are more than a week old.

Podcasting appears to have a positive effect on radio listening with 36% saying that they now listen to radio programmes to which they did not listen previously.

The number of people who have ever paid for a podcast remains stable at about 4.5% of podcast users.

59% of respondents said they would be interested in downloading podcasts containing advertising if they were free, while only 33% responded positively to the idea of podcasts without adverts that had to be paid for. (These figures have also remained stable when compared to similar data reported in MIDAS 3.)