UK radio industry research firm RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research) has released the findings (pdf) of its sixth survey on Internet delivered audio services.

According to the organization’s research, audio podcasts now reach about half as many people as Internet radio. 31*% of those surveyed listen to radio via the internet and 16% listen to podcasts.

The RAJAR Measurement of Internet Delivered Audio Services (MIDAS 6) was conducted during June 2010 by Ipsos MORI.

Highlights of the survey below.

Key Findings:

• 31% of adults claim to have ever listened to the radio via the internet, including 29% who have listened live (up from 27% in November 2009) and 25% who have used time-shifted listening (using Listen Again services, up from 23%).
• 71% of those Listen Again listeners said the service has no impact on the amount of live radio to which they listen; while half said they are now listening to radio programmes to which they did not listen previously. The average user of Listen Again services listened to just under 2 programmes in this way in the previous week.
• Awareness of Personalised Online Radio (POR) increased from 14% of Adults 15+ to 17% while the number of users of such services has increased from 8% to 11%. 6% claim to use POR at least once a week.
• 15% have heard of WiFi radio (a standalone radio set that connects wirelessly to the internet and is able to play any internet radio service) but only 2% claimed to own one.
• 15% of the adult 15+ population have downloaded a podcast. Almost half (47%) of podcast users claim to listen to podcasts at least once a week but only 25% of users find the time to listen to all the podcasts they download.
• 74% said that listening to podcasts had no impact on their live radio listening habits.
• The typical podcast user subscribes to just under 5 podcasts, and spent about an hour in the last week listening to them. As in previous surveys, comedy and music remain the two favorite genres.
• 77% of podcast users listen to podcasts at home, and 45% listen in the car or on public transport.
• Podcasting appears to have a positive effect on radio listening with 36% saying that they now listen to radio programs to which they did not listen previously, up from 32% in November 2009.
• 13%* of adults 15+ have ever listened to the radio via mobile phone. Of those, 54% select the station using specific FM preset and 14% run an app for a specific radio station.
• 20% of smartphone owners on the Midas survey (or 1.4 million) have downloaded a radio app and, of those, over half (53%) use their radio apps at least once a week.