Absolute Radio set to release online streaming figures

In a post on its One Golden Square blog, Absolute said it will initially release single figures combining monthly listening across the Absolute Radio network of stations.

It added that a total of 6.3 million hours of content were streamed live from the Absolute Radio, Absolute Radio Classic Rock and Absolute Radio Xtreme stations in September, up from 4.9 million in August.

More detailed information about individual stations, and the recently launched Dabbl, will be available in the future and Absolute said it is working to produce comparable figures between different broadcasters.

The broadcaster added that it has worked closely with the BBC to ensure its figures are similar to those of the BBC.

The current radio industry measurement system of RAJAR uses a sample population who record all radio listening by hand in a diary. Absolute Radio stressed the new figures are not a replacement for RAJAR.

Listening carried out by "robots" or tools used by search engines, listen-again data and podcast listening is not included in the figures at present, but will be available in the New Year.