Digital radio draws 12m listeners

Listening to the radio on mobile phones is becoming more popular

Twelve million people in the UK are listening to the radio digitally, new audience figures have revealed.

More than 25% per cent of all listeners regularly tune in to stations using digital radio, TV or the internet.

And listening to digital-only stations has risen from less than a million in 2003 to six million in 2007, according to radio industry analysts Rajar.

Overall radio listening figures have also risen, with 91% of the UK population now listening to the radio.

The number of people tuning in rose by 600,000 during the last three months, Rajar said.

Commercial radio has registered its highest listening figures in four years with a regular audience of 32 million, up more than one million compared to the same period in 2006.

Chris Moyles' show can be heard on digital and analogue platforms

BBC Radio 1's Chris Moyles added 200,000 new listeners to his breakfast show over the past three months.

With 7.26 million listeners, Moyles has closed the gap on Sir Terry Wogan's BBC Radio 2 breakfast programme, which remains the UK's most popular early morning show.

Radio 1 added another 320,000 listeners during April to June, while Radio 2 saw a slight dip in its audience reach, but remains the country's most listened-to station.

The BBC's digital-only radio networks, including 6 Music and 1Xtra, now have a combined listenership of 3m people.

Mobile listening

It is the first time listening habits have been broken down into digital and analogue audience figures.

People tuning into the radio via digital sets, their digital televisions and online now amass 136 million listening hours per week.

Listeners over the age of 15 are increasingly tuning into the radio using their mobile phones, with this number rising by 27% compared with the same period in 2006.

The number of people who listen to podcasts downloaded to their MP3 players has also risen from 1.9 million to 2.7 million.