Digital Radio for Ireland: Competing Options, Public Expectations - BCI

Figure
4.3:
Weekly
National
Reach
in
Ireland
While
 independent
 audience
 research
 for
 digital
 radio,
 and
 listening
 via
 the
 internet,
 is
 not
 yet
available
in
small
radio
markets
like
Ireland,
in
the
United
Kingdom
RAJAR
(Radio
Joint
Audience
Research)
has
been
tracking
audio
listening
via
the
internet
since
the
final
quarter
of
2007.
These
regular
 MIDAS
 (Measuring
 internet
 Delivered
 Audio
 Services)
 reports,
 along
 with
 research
commissioned
by
the
BBC
and
separately
by
the
communications
regulator,
Ofcom,
give
a
good
comparative
view
on
how
radio
is
being
changed
by
podcasting,
just
who
is
listening
and
why.
By
December
2008,
the
third
RAJAR/MIDAS
survey
allowed
us
to
see
a
one
year
trend
in
podcast
usage
in
the
United
Kingdom.
Across
a
full
year,
listening
to
radio
via
the
internet
had
grown
to
a
third
of
the
UK
population
(16.1
million
compared
to
12
million).
But
the
more
dramatic
increase
had
been
in
podcasting
with
7.2
million
(14%
of
the
population)
saying
they
had
downloaded
a
podcast
 and
 4.4
 million
 downloading
 podcasts
 every
 week
 –
 up
 from
 1.8
 million
 in
 the
 first
survey.
 This
 compares
 with
 Arbitron/Edison’s
 April
 2008
 figure
 of
 18%
 of
 the
 US
 population
using
 podcasts
 and
 Pew/Internet
 research
 showing
 19%
 of
 all
 internet
 users
 in
 the
 US
 having
downloaded
a
podcast,
up
from
12%
in
the
2006
Pew
study
(Madden
2008).
RAJAR/MIDAS
is
also
tracking
how
internet
listening
and
podcasting
is
affecting
linear
‘live’
radio.
Despite
 the
 fears
 in
 2004‐05
 that
 podcasting,
 or
 internet
 based
 radio
 on
 demand,
 would
 stop
people
 listening
 to
 linear
 radio,
 the
 MIDAS
 survey
 shows
 that
 while
 some
 podcast
 users
 are
listening
to
less
linear
radio,
far
more
are
being
encouraged,
by
podcasts,
to
experiment
and
try
out
 new
 programmes.
 In
 MIDAS
 2,
 released
 in
 July
 2008,
 15%
 of
 podcast
 users
 said
 they
 were
listening
to
more
radio
compared
to
10%
who
said
they
were
listening
less.
By
MIDAS
3,
released
in
December
2008,
35%
said
they
were
listening
to
live
radio
programmes
they
had
not
listened
to
before,
(slightly
down
on
the
previous
survey),
two
thirds
of
people
were
listening
to
much
the
same
live
radio
while
up
to
14%
were
listening
less
and
just
9%
say
they
were
listening
to
more
live
radio.
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