The first data showing the listening habits of people wearing the MediaWatch has been released Commercial Radio & Audio (CRA) and compiled by GfK, with some surprising results over the Summer holidays.

More than 90% of daily listeners continued to listen to radio between 3 December 2023 and 28 January 2024.

CRA chief executive officer Ford Ennals said:

“It’s a common misconception that radio listening drops off as we all go on our break, but these figures show that average daily listening in Summer is close to year-round levels at 91%.

The research shows listening starts later in the day as we aren’t rushing off to work. Between 9.30am and 3pm Monday to Friday the proportion of listening increases for all audiences by 4.4% over Summer, and for listeners aged under 40, this proportion increases by 10.8%.

This is the first time we have released insights from the GfK MediaWatch, which captures and encrypts the sounds the wearer is listening to and matches it to recordings of every station in the metro markets. These insights are useful for agencies and their clients as they can use them to inform their Summer campaigns – and it is clear that radio remains a powerful way to reach audiences all year round.” 

The GfK wearable technology MediaWatch was introduced as part of Radio 360.