77% listen to digital radio – Sharp rise in digital use in the car

Digital radio use is increasing across all regions, age groups and places of use, while FM continues to decline. Radio listening via the internet is becoming increasingly popular, although DAB+ remains the most widely used platform for radio listening. Last year, almost half a million new DAB+ radios came into use.

In the autumn2022, radio listeners used digital platforms for an average of 77 out of 100 minutes of radio every day. This was announced by the Digital Migration working group (WG DigiMig) at the ARARO radiophonic workshop for French-speaking Switzerland on 10 February 2023. Digital radio use jumped 28 percentage points over the last seven years to reach 77% in autumn 2022.

FM radio losing ground

Meanwhile, FM use has halved over the same period, dropping from 51% to 23%. Only 11 out of 100 people surveyed said that they still listen to FM radio exclusively. Listening to the radio online already accounts for 36% of radio listening, while DAB+ is at 41%.

Digital also in the lead in the car

Home is by far the most popular place to listen to the radio (63% of all radio use), followed by the workplace (18%) and the car (13%). The highest proportion of radio use in cars is now via DAB+ (51%). Together with the 12% for internet listening, a total of 63% of radio use in cars is digital. What's more, for several years now 99.9% of all new passenger cars have come with a DAB+ radio fitted as standard.

Six and a half million DAB+ radios sold

Around 280,000 DAB+ radios were sold in Switzerland in 2022. An additional 261,000 DAB+ radios came with vehicles. This pushes the total number of DAB+ radios in Switzerland up to around 6.5 million.