MORE people are listening to digital radio broadcasts on DAB radios than through digital TV sets and the Internet combined.

Following a 165 per cent growth in the number of hours spent listening to DAB radios, radio ratings organisation Radio Joint Audience Research (Rajar) believes that 10.5 per cent of all radio listening is now on a digital platform.

"The findings of the latest Rajar platform survey make encouraging reading for the digital radio industry in the UK," said Rajar managing director Sally de la Bedoyere.

"While listening on digital DTV and internet receivers has been gradually increasing over the past year, listening on DAB has grown by a staggering 165 per cent. Interestingly," she added, "this figure mirrors the latest sales of digital receivers as published by the Digital Radio Development Bureau (DRDB), which reported an increase of 257 per cent."

Ms de la Bedoyere also pointed out that the latest survey revealed a major shift in radio listening from analogue to digital receivers.

A Rajar survey last month found that home ownership of DAB sets rose from 4.5 per cent in September 2004 to 10.5 per cent in September this year.

Ian Dickens, DRDB chief executive, said: "Rajar's platform survey findings very much match the DRDB's own research, which shows sales of DAB digital radios more than doubling year-on-year.

The DRDB expects the trend to continue, he said, and forecasts that household penetration of DAB digital radio sets will reach 40 per cent in the UK by 2009.

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