Amazon Echo helps push digital radio audience past FM

The popularity of Amazon's Echo smart speakers has helped push the audience for digital radio past that of FM and AM in the UK for the first time. The milestone, which was reached in the first quarter of this year, could prompt the government to launch a review to evaluate whether it should switch off the FM signal. Digital, which covers listening via digital audio broadcasting (DAB) sets in homes and cars, televisions and through services such as Echo, hit a record share of 50.9% of all radio listening in the three months to March. Amazon's smart speakers, powered by the virtual assistant Alexa, have helped reinvent the medium for a new, tech-savvy generation, many of whom have failed to embrace traditional radio listening. Listening online and via apps proved to be by far the fastest-growing segment of digital consumption, with hours of listening in the first quarter surging by 14m (17%) year on year to 95m hours.