The amount of time people spend listening to BBC radio has dropped to its lowest level ever, the corporation’s boss has admitted. Figures show that while millions still tune in, they listen for much shorter bursts. The average listener spent just ten hours a week tuning in to BBC radio in the last three months of 2014, according to official figures. The length of time people spend listening to BBC radio has dropped to its lowest level ever, figures show . This was 14 per cent down on a decade earlier, when listeners clocked up an average of 11.6 hours a week. The minutes of the BBC Trust’s February meeting, published yesterday, revealed that director general Tony Hall highlighted the fall. ‘He noted…that time spent listening to BBC radio had dropped to its lowest ever level,’ the documents said. Sources blamed the downward trend on people leading faster-paced lives than in the past, and a change in habits amongst young people. Lord Tony Hall, BBC director general, highlighted the decline to the BBC Trust, according to minutes of its February meeting . Many people who used to listen to radio as a daily habit now turn to online streaming services such as Spotify for their music fix. That problem is likely to grow, as Apple develops its long-rumoured streaming service. A BBC spokesman said: ‘The number of people listening to BBC radio stations and audience appreciation levels are as high as ever. ‘But time spent listening has inevitably been affected by digital competition and as people ‘tune in’ in new, digital ways. ‘[Those ways] aren’t reflected in the traditional listening figures quoted here – like watching videos from radio shows or listening to podcasts.’ BBC radio is still reaching 65 per cent of the population each week, according to the last set of figures available from RAJAR, the organisation which measures radio audiences. But although that figure feels relatively healthy by today’s standards, it has none the less fallen by more over the last decade. In the final three months of 2004, 66 per cent of people in Britain listened to BBC network radio every week. Lord Hall also used the BBC Trust meeting to note the strong performance of BBC Radio 6, the digital music station which the Corporation had at one point been planning to scrap. ‘He reported that the recent RAJAR figures showed that 6Music had become the first digital-only station to reach two million listeners,’ the minutes said. Earlier this month, Matthew Postgate, the BBC’s chief technology officer, said the Corporation would adopt a new ‘digital first’ strategy, to help it target a new generation of users. He said the organisation needed to ‘learn lessons’ if they want to ‘compete with organisations that were born in the digital age’.
Figures show that while millions still tune in they listen for shorter bursts . Average listener spent ten hours a week tuning in last three months of 2014 . This was 14% down on decade earlier, when people tuned in for 11.6 hours . The BBC Trust has cleared the way for firms to buy their way into lifestyle programmes on the World News channel in a product placement experiment. For example, publishers could pay to have their books reviewed on Talking Books. The BBC Trust will review the scheme in a year.