The Government’s Digital Britain report decreed that digital radio was the future for the industry and set an ambitious target of 2015 for the switchover from analogue. But official listening figures released yesterday show that growth of the medium has stalled over the past three months.

Fewer adults are listening to fewer hours of digital radio than they were three months ago, according to the quarterly figures from Rajar (Radio Joint Audience Research), which found that the percentage of listening done via a digital platform has stayed static at 21.1 per cent. Bizarrely, the number of adults who claim to live in a household with a DAB digital set has actually dropped in the past quarter by 300,000, to 16.6 million.

A 1 per cent quarter-on-quarter fall in the percentage of adults listening to digital radio, and the drop in total hours each week, from 217 million to 213 million, can be explained by an overall decline in radio listening in the period. However, that the medium has failed to make ground in the proportion of people it attracts will worry the industry.

Lord Carter’s Digital Britain report set down an estimate that 26 per cent of radio listening would be digital by the end of this year. But with the figure still barely more than 21 per cent, it is unlikely to get close.

Grant Goddard, an independent radio-industry analyst, said: “The targets in Digital Britain are very tough. It would be a challenge to meet them, particularly when the actions from the report are dependent on whatever happens in the Digital Economy Bill. A lot of the changes really can’t start until we have primary legislation. The industry is in a waiting room.”

Lord Mandelson’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is currently drawing up the Bill, which is expected to include provisions to allow analogue stations to merge to form new DAB stations. But it is not expected to come into force until next April.

Digital Radio UK, the body given the responsibility of establishing the medium as the leading radio format in the country, said that when set in an annual context, yesterday’s figures still represented healthy growth. The organisation points to a rise of more than two million over the past year in the number of households owning a digital radio.

Tony Moretta, chief executive of the Digital Radio Development Bureau, speaking on behalf of Digital Radio UK, said: “The fact that all figures indicate that 2 million more people in the UK are choosing digital radio now than at this time last year is incredibly encouraging. With the radio industry now more focused than ever on digital upgrade, we are confident more and more listeners will switch to digital.”

The organisation insisted that it had made ground in the four months since Lord Carter’s findings were published. A spokeswoman said: “The Digital Britain report does not set annual targets and we do not have a specific target to meet in terms of total share beyond the two criteria for upgrade. It has only been a matter of months since the publication of the Digital Britain report and all stakeholders in digital radio have galvanised their activity.

“There are numerous ways that a graph could plot a path to growth and we anticipate that take-up will accelerate as a result of the excellent foundations we are currently building,” she added.

“There is clearly some way to go but the industry is confident that with the formation of Digital Radio UK, the provisions in the Digital Economy Bill and the collective will of all stakeholders, we will successfully deliver the benefits of digital radio upgrade to listeners.”

The spokeswoman continued: “In relation to listening hours via a digital platform dropping by 1 per cent quarter on quarter, in a quarter when overall radio listening has dropped, this is not surprising. The fact is that digital listening has dropped less proportionately than the drop in all listening. Year on year it is up 14 per cent.”

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