Following the headlines in that we published last month, I wanted to share some more details and insights about 主播大秀 Network Radio's interactive performance, as it was a record month for us. They say events drive reach, and plenty happened on the Radio websites in March that helps prove the adage. Reach to all 主播大秀 Radio sites hit 3.7 million average weekly unique browsers*. And if you factor in A&M's music and events websites, such as and , we recorded an overall reach for all 主播大秀 Audio and Music sites of 4.3 million UK average weekly unique browsers. That's an all-time high for us.

Online interest in was a big part of this, pushing traffic to the Radio 1 site to a record 2.4m average weekly UK unique browsers. Live footage from the studio, carried on the Red Button, attracted 2.84 million viewers. And then there was Fearne Cotton. Her offer to if the total raised by Moyles topped 脗拢2 million caused a surge of traffic that helped crash the Radio 1 site for a brief time. So, events do drive reach, and we've learnt some useful lessons there about capacity planning. On top of this, there have been about half a million clicks to view the section of the programme again via the website, and at .

We've had a superb month for live online listening. And although live listening via the internet still accounts for a relatively small amount of all digital consumption, we know people find it convenient to stream radio at their desks: compared to consumption via analogue platforms, online radio listening doesn't fall away so dramatically after radio's 'usual' breakfast time peak. In March, we recorded 29 million requests for live streams, 18% up on this time last year. Record performances across 主播大秀 network radio contributed to this, including , which nabbed 1.3m live stream requests for its World Cup Cricket coverage. Did I say... events drive reach?

We broke more records with , delivering 12.3m successful downloads to UK subscribers in March. topped the list of our daily podcasts, with Scott Mills in second place. Interestingly, although Radio 4's landmark series ended last autumn, remain popular enough to make it the 5th most popular daily podcast title in March. This is evidence of the demand there is for 脗聽and of the public value we can create by . First indications from the are also very encouraging. I've just had a first sight of April's podcast results - they're looking equally promising, including several hundred thousand successful downloads of our Royal Wedding 2011 podcast. This included a lot of interest from users in English-speaking countries around the world such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the USA. It's another good example of how events drive reach.

A final, encouraging thing to note is the steady growth in reach to A&M's websites optimised for mobile devices. We've done a lot of work over the past 2 years to improve the usability of those sites, including automatically tweaking the pages to suit the device in question, and adding the ability to stream live radio for many devices. Devices are becoming easier to use too, and the performance since the start of this year suggests that the effort is now paying off: significant numbers of users now accessing A&M's content via mobile. March was a great month for this. There was growth across the board, with new sites for Radio 4's Desert Island Discs and Radio 1's Big Weekend contributing to the increase. And there was especially strong growth for Radio 1 and 1Xtra, where all mobile devices are now covered with key services and where fans used their phones to join in the fun with Moyles & Co for Red Nose Day.脗聽 Which all goes to show... well, you know what goes here.

* Unique Browsers: this is the term we use to describe a single computer accessing our websites. It's not the same as measuring 'people', and it's not a perfect proxy - but is the closest we have for now. One 'unique browser' is counted for every distinct 'cookie' which has visited a website within a given timeframe. In the 主播大秀, this timeframe is one week. A cookie is a small piece of information that a server sends to your computer to identify that computer on its return. Whenever you clear your cookies, as some people regularly do, your computer is issued with a new cookie when you return to a website.

Alan Phillips is senior business manager, 主播大秀 Audio & Music Interactive

The covering March 2011 has been published today on the . Headlines from the Comms team include:

• March 2011 saw a new record being set, with 38 million requests for Radio programmes, boosted significantly by World Cup Cricket 2011 coverage and Chris Moyles' Longest Show Ever for Comic Relief
• Live streaming on 主播大秀 iPlayer was at the highest levels seen to date for both TV and radio - for TV making up 15% of all requests, and for radio, up to 75%

You can download a PDF of the from the 主播大秀 Internet blog.

Paul Murphy is the acting editor of the Radio blog

• The image is from the 主播大秀 Archive. The caption reads: "Middle School Mathematics, 01/09/1963 脗漏 主播大秀 picture shows - Dick Tahta, lecturer in Maths at Exeter University. Studio5, TVC"
• Read the Next Web story:

Using a beta (test) version of a service called we've rounded up the reaction in the press, on the blogs and on the social networks to this morning's RAJAR numbers. What's your opinion of the numbers? Log in to leave a comment.

Steve Bowbrick, blogs editor

• (Radio Joint Audience Research) is jointly owned by the and commercial radio trade body the . Participating listeners are asked to record their radio listening in quarter-hour time blocks for one week.
• The RAJAR figures for 'linear listening', not including on-demand listening or podcasts, and the official (PDF).
• 主播大秀 Audio & Music's .
• Thanks to Jem Stone for curating the links.

I asked the 主播大秀's media correspondent, Torin Douglas, to drop into 's offices in Television Centre this morning to interview Controller Adrian Van Klaveren about the station's performance in the final quarter of 2010.

Tim Davie is Director of Audio & Music at the 主播大秀

• (Radio Joint Audience Research) is jointly owned by the and commercial radio trade body the . Participating listeners are asked to record their radio listening in quarter-hour time blocks for one week.
• The RAJAR figures for 'linear listening', not including on-demand listening or podcasts, and the official (PDF).
• 主播大秀 Audio & Music's .
• Picture, , by . .

The Rajars? Obscure industry obsession or the beating heart of radio? The figures for the fourth quarter of 2010 are published next Thursday morning, 3 February. Watch this space for coverage of the numbers that give radio people sleepless nights, starting on Tuesday with an exclusive primer on how they're gathered from RAJAR Research Director Paul Kennedy.

Steve Bowbrick, blogs editor

• Read Tim Davie's blog post here and the stats themselves .

As I was reading from radio industry leaders - myself included - reacting to the latest quarterly radio listening numbers, it was hard not to feel somewhat exhausted by endlessly positive sentiments. Nearly every quote is upbeat with each company proclaiming success. So what's going on?

Firstly, the good news is that when a sector is growing then there is a genuine opportunity for all companies to increase listening. I have spent the last few months emphasizing that although the radio market faces some challenges, it is time to accept that it has proved much more robust than anyone expected. Indeed, it has shown that it will remain a major force in a fully digital world. The latest Rajars actually showed a record high number of listeners (46.8 million) and showed an increase in hours for the first time in a while (up to 22.6 hrs a week). This is excellent news and it should give radio real confidence to lead the media sector. Revenues may be smaller than some other sectors such as TV or online but the depth of its relationship with the audience is second-to-none.

Meanwhile, after a record-breaking quarter some 主播大秀 services did take a small step back versus the last quarter although nearly all are up versus a year ago. However, as listening grew, we did see a small decline in our share of the market. Some may think this would be cause for concern in Broadcasting House but it is not a key metric for us. We maintained the numbers of listeners (66% of the population over 15) and actually grew hours (up to 16.7 hrs a week). So the 主播大秀 increased its importance while the market grew and commercial radio benefited. This growth, helped by the strong performance of national stations, is welcome because it helps drive revenues and growth for the whole sector.

So although the natural instinct of all corporate leaders may be to focus statements on the more positive elements of the facts, this quarter's results have enough genuinely good figures to keep most of the industry smiling.

Tim Davie is Director of Audio & Music at the 主播大秀

• (Radio Joint Audience Research) is jointly owned by the and commercial radio trade body the . Participating listeners are asked to record their radio listening in quarter-hour time blocks for one week.
• The RAJAR figures for 'linear listening', not including on-demand listening or podcasts, and the official (PDF).
• 主播大秀 Audio & Music's .
• Picture, , by , used .