Radio industry in Benelux - statistics & facts
Which channels top the Benelux radio charts?
The radio landscape in Benelux features numerous stations and networks of all sizes. But even though there is no single player that dominates the airways in all three countries, it is also true that some well-established media companies are expanding their influence on the region via mergers and acquisitions. One such example is DPG Media, a Belgian media company that also owns brands in the Netherlands and Denmark. Industry data shows that two of its stations, Qmusic and Joe, placed among the leading Dutch language radio stations in Belgium in 2023 while also ranking among the radio stations with the highest audience reach in the Netherlands. As for Luxembourg, RTL Radio Lëtzebuerg boasted the highest number of listeners in early 2022. The station is part of the RTL Group, whose Belgian division was recently co-purchased by DPG.Radio consumption trends
Radio still enjoys considerable reach and popularity in the Benelux region. Millions of radio listeners across all three countries tune in every day, and even though surveys showed that the audience reach of radio in the Netherlands dropped by nearly 10 percent in the last decade, this downward trend is unfolding at a much slower pace than in many other markets. The same can be said about radio consumption in the Netherlands, which, despite having decreased since the early 2010s, still stands above 147 minutes per day.Keeping in mind that radio is particularly popular with older generations, it will be interesting to see how fast the industry can adapt to demographic changes and young consumers’ preferences for online media in the future.