Digital take-up continuing to increase

ALMOST 60 per cent of the UK adult population have access to digital services such as digital TV and the internet, according to figures released yesterday.

According to radio listening auditors, RAJAR, the ‘digitally enabled universe’, between January 1 and March 31 this year, included 58 per cent of the UK adult population, up three per cent on the final three months of last year.

The figures also so a four per cent increase – between the first quarter of this year and the final quarter of last – in the number of adults in the UK who live in homes with access to digital radios – up to 20 per cent.

Twenty-four per cent listen to radio via the internet (22 per cent in Q4) and 41 per cent listen via digital TV (39 per cent in Q4).

Eleven per cent of mobile phone users – some four million – claim to listen to radio via a mobile phone, with the figure for 15-to-24-year olds being 25 per cent – 1.6 million.

Two-and-a-half million mp3 player owners use their player to listen to downloaded podcasts – that’s 18 per cent of mp3 player owners and a 400,000 rise from the Q4 figure.