RAJAR finds 8m use internet radio weekly

Some 8.1m million people listen to the radio on the web every week, RAJAR's first internet listening survey has revealed.

The radio audience research body carried out its first online study last autumn and published the resulting Podcasting and Radio Listening via Internet Survey yesterday.

It found nearly 12m people claimed they had listened to either live or recorded radio content on the internet. Results suggested 8.1m use the service in each week.

Research director Paul Kennedy admitted it was an early step into online research: "This survey is very much a toe in the water. Although we already knew that listen again, personalised online radio and podcasting had many advocates, we knew nothing of their standing in the mainstream.

"This survey tells us and our subscribers, who are actively involved in these areas, more about them."

The internet could also benefit linear radio services, results appeared to show, with three quarters saying "listen again" services did not affect how often they tuned in live. Almost half of the total number of respondents said it led them to listen to new programmes.

RAJAR also found that 4.3m people had downloaded a podcast and 1.87m listen to one each week. Comedy and music are the most popular shows and on average podcast users listen for 53.6 minutes per week.

Nearly 60% said they would be interested in free podcasts with adverts while only 28% said they would pay for advert-free content.

The survey also found two thirds of podcast users listened with iTunes.

Ipsos MORI questioned a sample of RAJAR respondents from the past nine months who had claimed to listen to internet radio or podcasts. There were 639 respondents in total.