It is two years since full power digital radio services were launched to consumers. To celebrate, Commercial Radio Australia (CRA) have released official data showing there are some 940,000* people now listening to digital radio in the five state metropolitan capitals of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. Also 508,462 ** digital radios have been sold to date.
As an added bonus, the research shows just how effective radio advertising can be. According to the GFK Marketscope Q2 2011 report, 71,233 additional digital radios were sold in the 2011 Mother’s Day quarter, up from Q1, when 53,996 were sold. There’s little doubt that the ad blitz promoting digital radios as an ideal Mother’s Day gift had something to do with the sales spike.
It brings the total number of digital radios sold since launch in August 2009 to over half a million.
Official Nielsen radio survey results for metropolitan Survey 5 2011 show that the number of people listening to digital radio is moving towards the 1 million mark.
7.6 % of listening to radio is now via a DAB+ digital radio device in the five state metropolitan capitals. Time Spent Listening (TSL) to DAB+ digital radio is also continuing to grow, reaching 11 hours and 28 minutes. By comparison TSL to radio via the internet is only 5 hours and 40 minutes.
A new series of radio advertisements promoting digital radio for Father’s Day has commenced on high rotation for three weeks, across the 42 commercial stations in the metropolitan markets, supported by online, point of sale and social media.
CRA CEO, Joan Warner said, “For the first time in our digital ad campaign, we are mentioning a price point in conjunction with retailer Harvey Norman to highlight the fact that digital radios are an affordable present for Fathers’ Day.”
Harvey Norman, Business Development Manager, Adam Mills said, “Harvey Norman has made digital radio a focus this Father’s Day featuring a selection of radios in our catalogue, plus an online campaign and working with Commercial Radio Australia on a digital radio stand.”
A digital radio demonstration stand will also operate at the Bondi Junction Harvey Norman store from 1-3 September with a range of digital radios on display for listeners to try before buying.
The animated online banner ad complementing the radio campaign will run on all metropolitan commercial station websites and on www.digitalradioplus.com.au.
The radio industry continues to work with the Federal Government and the ACMA to plan the rollout of DAB+ digital radio throughout regional Australia.
Click here to hear the Father,s Day ads