RAJAR Q3 2012 Review

Hi All,

Here’s my full RAJAR update for Quarter 3 2012 – if this is a little too much, check out my comments which I will be posting shortly.

Enjoy…

Magic 105.4 becomes the most listened to commercial radio station in London, whilst digital listening figures remain static.

RAJAR, the radio audience survey, shows that 89% of people in the UK listen to the radio every week. Commercial radio reaches over 33 million listeners and achieves a listener share of 43.3% versus the BBC’s 54.2%. On a local level, commercial radio completely dominates the BBC, delivering 26.4 million listeners compared to the BBC’s 8.9 million for local and regional services.

LONDON LISTENING: In the London marketplace the big news is that Magic 105.4 has taken over the number one spot in terms of reach, delivering over 2.1 million weekly listeners. Magic have also delivered in terms of listening share, showing strong quarter on quarter growth to take the top position with a massive 7.3%.  Going back to the reach table, Capital London have dropped to second position after a poor set of results, delivering 1,999,000.  A 12.2% quarter on quarter growth to 1,952,000 from Kiss 100 has helped them jump above Heart London (1,826,000), with LBC (927,000) also up 14% quarter on quarter taking fifth place, whilst poor results for Absolute Radio in London (832,000) saw them drop to sixth. Note: It is possible to measure Classic FM by its London only transmitter, which delivers 1,287,000.

LONDON BREAKFAST: The much talked about ‘battle of the breakfast shows’ has again been won by Capital Radio London, with 1,165,000 listeners to their show from 6-10am. This is the third set of results for Capital Radio since a change to the line-up saw Dave Berry replace Johnny Vaughan as Lisa Snowdon’s co-host on the breakfast show – and they will no doubt be proud of their continued reign at the top. Neil Fox’s Magic Breakfast Show (5-9am) has retained second place with improved figures up to 822,000 listeners, whilst Kiss Breakfast with Rickie, Melvin & Charlie (6-9am) have achieved third position with 717,000 weekly listeners – again beating Jamie and Harriet on Heart London (6-9am) who delivered 611,000 listeners.

NEW STATIONS: This is the first RAJAR for one new station and also a number of rebranded stations. Following the lead of Absolute Radio, decade-based stations are in vogue at present, with all the new stations carrying this theme. Smooth 70s, the National digital radio station owned by Real and Smooth Ltd, has delivered 749,000 listeners in its first set of results. Whilst Orion Media has taken the step of rebranding their Midlands-based Gold stations to Free Radio 80s. Previously reporting as Gold Birmingham & Black Country; Coventry & Warwickshire; Shropshire and West Midlands, the stations are now part of the Free Radio 80s Network. Whilst some stations struggle when they go through a rebrand, the Free Radio 80s stations have all had positive results. Covering Swansea and Port Talbot, 102.1 Bay Radio has also become an 80s station – extending the brand of its sister station Nation Radio to become Nation 80s – delivering a reach of 39,000, only slightly down on their previous reach of 40,000.

REGIONAL REVIEW: Briefly looking around the regions; in Norfolk, Norwich 99.9 FM have posted weekly reach figures of 54,000 listeners – 16% of the available population (slightly down from 57,000). In Doncaster (South Yorkshire), Trax FM has seen positive quarter on quarter growth, delivering 98,000 listeners (27%), up from 96,000 listeners (26%) previously, and in South West Wales Radio Pembrokeshire have posted a massive weekly reach of 50% (48,000 weekly listeners).

NATIONAL STATIONS: Classic FM remains the most listened to (single) commercial radio station in the UK. The station has maintained its reach of 5.4 million adults with listeners tuning in for an average of 6.5 hours. Keeping a focus on the national analogue stations: talkSPORT held on to second place recording a reach of 3 million weekly listeners. While Absolute Radio (National + London) delivered results down 12.4% quarter on quarter to 1,544,000. Note: Kiss UK, who broadcast across the UK via online, digital TV and on a number of DAB transmitters – plus three regional FM licenses – have achieved 4.3 million listeners, while Smooth Radio, who also broadcast nationally on DAB and have several regional licences (with local content in Scotland), has delivered figures of 3.19 million weekly adult listeners.

NETWORK STATIONS: The network radio stations which have become a feature of the UK radio industry over the past couple of years have again delivered some big numbers this quarter.
The largest commercial radio network in the country is Global’s Heart Network which delivers 7.3 million listeners, closely followed by the Capital Network on 6.8 million listeners. Kiss UK has delivered 4.3 million, Magic UK 3.8 million, Smooth Radio UK 3.2 million, and Real Radio UK 2.3 million.

Note: As the UK radio marketplace changes there is some convergence between national and network stations. Whilst the lines are becoming blurred, RadioWorks define network stations as those which have locally produced content, whilst national stations have the same output right across the country and are also available on a mainstream national transmitter (Analogue Radio or Digital Radio).

DIGITAL RADIO: Digital listening has remained static dropping down slightly to account for a 31.3% share of all radio listening, with 45.6% of people now listening to digital radio, either through DAB, DTV, the internet or ‘other’. The latest RAJAR figures recorded that 22 million adults (42%) claim to live in a household which has a DAB receiver. The number one commercial, digital only radio station in the UK remains Smash Hits Radio, with almost one million listeners (970,000). Absolute  80s have jumped up to second place with 895,000 weekly reach, going above The Hits which has dropped down to 893,000. Planet Rock also dropped off slightly reaching 864,000 listeners whilst in their first RAJAR Smooth 70s delivered impressive results of 749,000.

GROUP PERFORMANCE: The UK’s largest commercial radio group is Global Radio (delivering a total of 19.2 million listeners), thanks in part to the strength of its three core brands Classic FM, Heart and Capital. Bauer Radio with their Place and Passion Portfolios is the second largest commercial group, with a total reach of 13.3 million adults. Real and Smooth Ltd. (previously GMG Radio), who are now a part of Global Radio (subject to confirmation from the Competitions Commission) has delivered a 5.8 million weekly reach, whilst UTV Radio, owners of talkSPORT, reaches 4.2 million listeners.  Absolute Radio, and its network of decade-based stations, have dropped off slightly after their record listening figures of the previous quarter, and now deliver 2.9 million weekly reach figures. It is also worth noting that when Global’s purchase of Real and Smooth Ltd goes through, the group could be posting figures in the region of up to 25 million listeners.

TARGETED STATIONS: Premier Christian Radio, broadcasting in London on analogue and across the UK via digital (online and DAB) have dropped off slightly on last quarter’s reach, now delivering 164,000 listeners every week. There has also been a slight drop quarter on quarter for Sunrise Radio (London) who reach 282,000 weekly listeners.

MOBILE LISTENING: RAJAR shows that 18% of adults and 34% of 15-24’s now claim to listen to radio on their mobile phone, and nearly all the UK’s radio stations are providing smartphone apps to enhance the mobile listening experience. The UK’s online radio consolidation platform, RadioPlayer, has also released an iPhone app, with versions for other formats to follow. .

That’s it from me for now. If you have any questions on RAJAR or if you would like any further information please feel free to contact your RadioWorks representative or email me Simon@RadioWorks.co.uk

SOURCE: RAJAR Q3 2012

Simon Pearce is Head of Insight at radio advertising specialists RadioWorks and Maple Street Studios

RAJAR Q1 2012

Hi All,

Here’s my full RAJAR update for Quarter 1 2012 – if this is a little too much, check out my comments which I will be posting shortly.

Enjoy…

It’s been another good quarter for Digital Listening! This quarter saw an increase in Digital Listening with 311 million listening hours and 45% of the population tuning in to the radio via any digital platform.

RAJAR, the radio audience survey, shows that 90% of people in the UK listen to the radio every week. Commercial Radio reaches over 33 million listeners and achieves a listener share of 42.3% versus the BBC’s 55.4%. On a local level commercial radio completely dominates the BBC delivering 26.5 million listeners compared to the BBC’s 9.9 million for local and regional services.

LONDON LISTENING: In the London marketplace Capital London has held on to the number one spot in terms of reach with a 4.1% year on year increase taking them to a reach of 2,269,000 listeners. Magic 105.4 has dropped off slightly in terms of reach down to 1,963,000. However, in terms of listening share Magic has grown their hours to take top position from Capital with a share of 6.1%. Going back to the reach table, strong improvements from Kiss sees them move above Heart London to take third position. The Sony Award winning station Kiss FM delivered a year on year increase of 7.5% to achieve 1,958,000 weekly listeners – a share of 5.1% and places them at third in the share table. With 1.9 million listeners per week Heart London is in fourth place in terms of reach but poor listening hours has seen the station drop to fifth place with a share of only 4.4%. After recent strong results, LBC have had a poor quarter, seeing their reach drop to 867,000 and the share drop to 4.6%. The national station Classic FM also reports London only figures and delivered 1.1 million listeners with a share of 3.5%.

LONDON BREAKFAST: The much talked about ‘battle of the breakfast shows’ has been won by Capital London, with 1,265,000 listeners to their show from 6-10. This is the first set of results for Capital London since a change to the line-up saw Dave Berry replace Johnny Vaughan as Lisa Snowdon’s co-host on the breakfast show, so they will no doubt be very happy to retain the number one position despite a slight drop over last quarter’s results. Neil Fox’s Magic Breakfast Show (5-9am) has retained second place with 793,000. Whilst Jamie and Harriet on Heart London (6-9am) have jumped up to third position with a reach of 759,000 weekly listeners. Kiss Breakfast with Rickie, Melvin & Charlie (6-9am) this week won a Sony Gold Award for their show but unfortunately failed to grow their audience, achieving only 750,000 weekly listeners. This is still some way ahead of the fifth and sixth placed London Breakfast shows, LBC (561,000) and Absolute Radio Network London (532,000).

REGIONAL REVIEW: Briefly looking around the regions; Liverpool appears to be the place to be if you want to listen to award winning radio. At this week’s Sony Radio Academy Awards – the radio Oscars – two local stations in the city both brought home Gold Awards. Radio City won the station of the year award for a population of over one million, and the micro station Juice FM won the station of the year award for a population fewer than one million. In terms of listening figures, they also delivered some strong results. Juice posted an increase of 9,000 listeners’ quarter on quarter to now reach 204,000 (21%), with Radio City reaching 447,000 (25%). And both stations showed an increase in listening hours. Outside of Liverpool there are a couple of stations whose RAJAR results that cannot be overlooked – Channel 103 & Island FM in Jersey and Guernsey respectively. This quarter, Island reached 49% of the population and Channel an amazing 58% reach of its available population – so if you want to advertise to people in the Channel Islands radio is a great way to reach the audience.

NATIONAL STATIONS: Classic FM remains the most listened to (single) commercial radio station in the UK. Despite a positive quarter the station is down over 10% year on year, with a reach of 5.4 million adults. Keeping a focus on the national analogue stations – talkSPORT, another Sony Award winner (for Best Sports Programme) improved their reach again and now delivers over 3.2 million listeners, while Absolute Radio remained around the 1.6 million mark. The Total Absolute Radio Network, which this quarter added Absolute Radio 60s and 70s to its stable of decade stations, has improved their results quarter on quarter, and now deliver almost 3 million listeners (2,978,000).

NETWORK STATIONS: The network radio stations which have become a feature of the UK radio industry over the past couple of years have posted some good results this quarter. The largest commercial radio network in the country is Global’s Heart Network which delivers over 7.4 million listeners, closely followed by the Capital Network on 7 million listeners. Kiss UK has delivered 4.3 million, Magic UK 3.6 million, Smooth Radio UK 3.3 million, and Total Real Radio 2.5 million.

DIGITAL RADIO: Digital listening has grown to account for a 29.2% share of all radio listening, with a weekly reach of 45.1% of people listening to digital radio, either through DAB, DTV, the internet or ‘other’. The latest RAJAR figures recorded 22 million adults (44.6%) claiming to live in a household which has a DAB receiver. The number one commercial, digital only, radio station in the UK is now The Hits with over one million listeners (1,081,000). Also owned by Bauer, Smash Hits has dropped to second place with 991,000. Planet Rock increased their reach 6.2% quarter on quarter to take third position with a reach of 861,000; with Absolute Radio 80s reaching 857,000 to achieve fourth and Heat Radio delivering 716,000. This is the first set of results for the recently launched Absolute Radio 60s and Absolute Radio 70s, both stations helped the Absolute business to post their highest audience figures for almost 10 years with 60’s achieving 151,000 and 70s delivering 157,000 weekly reaching.

GROUP PERFORMANCE: The UK’s largest commercial radio group is Global Radio (19.2 million listeners), thanks in part to the strength of its three core brands Classic FM, Heart and Capital. Bauer Radio with their Place and Passion Portfolios is the second largest commercial group, with a total reach of 13.3 million. GMG Radio has delivered 5.5 million weekly reach whilst UTV Radio, owners of talkSPORT, reach 4,461,000 listeners.

TARGETED STATIONS: Premier Christian Radio, broadcasting in London on analogue and across the UK via digital (online and DAB) now achieves a reach of 153,000. And there have also been quarter on quarter increases across Kismat Radio and Buzz Asia in London, delivering 105,000 and 119,000 respectively. Sunrise Radio has seen a slight drop quarter on quarter to 457,000 weekly reach.

MOBILE LISTENING: Finally onto mobile listening – RAJAR shows that 16.9% of adults and 32.8% of 15-24’s now claim to listen to radio on their mobile phone. Nearly all the UK’s radio stations are providing smartphone apps to enhance the mobile listening experience and provide advertisers with an additional point of contact. An upcoming RAB / Other Lines Of Enquiries study into mobile radio listening is expected to show some interesting results.

That’s it from me for now. If you have any questions on RAJAR or if you would like any further information please feel free to contact your RadioWorks representative or alternatively email Simon@RadioWorks.co.uk

SOURCE: RAJAR Q1 2012

RAJAR Q3 2010

Magic 105.4 takes the number one spot in London as Commercial Radio closes the gap on the BBC

In the London marketplace Magic 105.4 has won the battle for the top spot beating off strong competition from 95.8 Capital FM. By achieving both the highest reach (2,149,000) and the highest share of listening hours (6.7%) Magic can undoubtedly say they are the number one radio station in London against All Adults. In terms of reach Capital were not too far behind them, delivering over 2.1 million listeners themselves (2,125,000), a massive 16.9% year on year increase. Looking at share, Capital and Heart 106.2 are in second equal position with 5.3% followed by Kiss and LBCwho are level on 4.9%.Commercial Radio as a whole will be very happy with this quarter’s set of figures as again it has taken listening from the BBC. On a local level commercial radio delivers almost 27 million listeners compared to just 9.1 million for the BBC’s local and regional services. Nationally, commercial radio has also gained from across the board with share of listening now split at 43.4% for commercial radio verses 54.3% for the BBC. Returning to the London marketplace and the much talked about ‘battle of the breakfast shows’ has been won again by Johnny and Lisa on 95.8 Capital FM. The duo managed to bring in over 1.1 million listeners to their 6-10am breakfast show, that’s 189,000 more than Chris Moyles on Radio 1 achieves in London! Jamie and Harriet on Heart (6-9am) have managed to hang on to their position of second most listened to commercial breakfast show. Despite a slight dip in listening, they still talk to 834,000 listeners every week. Rickie, Melvin and Charlie on Kiss 100 (6-9am) also dropped off this quarter and were beaten to the third spot by Magic’s Neil Fox (5.30-9am). These shows achieved results of 669,000 and 787,000 respectively, whilst Nick Ferrari over at LBC(7-10) improved on his figures, moving up to 627,000 listeners, not quite enough to push him into fourth position. Briefly looking around the regions….. in Northern Ireland, Cool FM reached 364,000 adults (37% of all available adults in their TSA Total Survey Area). In Stockport the micro station Imagine FM delivered 28,000 listeners (8%). Broadcasting across Yorkshire the regional station Real Radio pulled in 293,000 (10%) and in Coventry Merciaachieved 145,000 listeners (22%). Focusing on the North East, the soon to be re-branded Galaxy Radio has performed well increasing its reach to a total of 607,000 listeners, up from 553,000 last quarter (more on that the rebrand later). The quarter has also been good for Metro Radio in Newcastle as the station grew its reach by 16,000 listeners, now delivering 393,000 adults. TFM in Middlesbrough however has fallen away slightly on last quarters figures, now reaching 195,000 (down 5,000). Star North East also lost listeners this quarter going from 48,000 to 37,000. Real Radio and Smooth Radio, which, like Galaxy, both cover off the whole North East region, had mixed results. Smooth were up slightly to 385,000 listeners and Real Radio were slightly down to 301,000. Classic FM remains the most listened to (single) commercial radio station in the UK with a reach of 5.6 million adults, showing a year on year increase of 4.2%. But when looking at the national stations it is talkSPORT that should take all the plaudits as they have brought in record figures of 2.9 million listeners! No doubt aided by the World Cup finals, the station achieved a 19.6% year on year increase and was up 18.1% quarter on quarter. For the second quarter in a row, Absolute Radio has also seen their best set of figures, up 14.8% quarter on quarter to a reach of 1,115,000 adults 15+ across the UK. Staying with Absolute; with the addition of Absolute Radio 90s (203,000), the second set of results for Absolute 80s (564,000) and improved results from Absolute Classic Rock (303,000), the Absolute Radio Network now reaches over 2.4 million listeners. Digital listening has grown slightly to account for a 24.8% share of all radio listening, with 36.6% of people claiming to listen to digital radio, either through DAB; DTV; the internet or ‘other’ (e.g. smartphone applications). The latest RAJAR figures recorded 35.4% of adults claiming to live in a household which has a DAB receiver, up from 32.3% last year. Bauer’s digital stations continue to remain strong in the digital only UK market. The Hits and Smash Hits both achieved over 1.1 million listeners, making them the two most listened to commercial digital only stations. The independently owned, Sony Digital Radio Station of the Year, Planet Rock takes third position achieving year on year growth of 10.6% and now reaching 783,000 listeners. The UK’s largest commercial radio group is Global Radio (19.9 million listeners), the owners of the Heart Network of stations which delivers almost 8 million listeners across the UK. The latest news to come out of Global Radio is their plan to roll out the Capital brand across a number of stations throughout the UK. The combined reach for those stations set to become Capital in January is 6.7 million listeners so we can expect to see this make a dramatic impact on the UK radio marketplace (for more information on this rebrand please feel free to contact a member of the RadioWorks team). Bauer Radio is the second largest commercial group, with a 13 million reach. GMG Radio who recently launched Smooth on to the National DAB platform will expect to see increased figures from this in their next set of results, but for now they reach just short of 5.2 million people.UTV Radio, including talkSPORT, delivers almost 3.9 million reach. As alluded too earlier this is the first set of RAJAR results for Absolute Radio 90s, a digital only station currently broadcasting in London on DAB and across the UK online. Absolute Radio will no doubt be happy with these first set of figures as the 90s station achieved a weekly reach of 203,000 adults. This set of RAJAR results also registered the name changes of Mercury FM (Herts) and Mercury FM (Surrey & Sussex) to Heart Hertfordshire and Heart Crawley & Surrey respectively. The stations had mixed results with Heart Hertfordhire improving slightly to 35,000 and Heart Crawley & Surrey dropping to 81,000. It’s also the first RAJAR for the newly re-named Nova Radio Weston (was Star Radio in North Somerset), which delivered 17,000 listeners. Sunrise Radio, which broadcasts in London on analogue and across the UK via digital (online and DAB) has shown a year on year increase of 7.9% and now achieves a reach of 506,000. Panjab Radio delivered 194,000 listeners, an improvement of 25.2% on last quarter. Finally, listening to the radio via a mobile phone should also be mentioned as 12.8% of adults and almost 31% of 15-24s claim to listen in this way. Many radio stations are now providing smartphone apps to enhance the mobile listening experience and a recent RAJAR study has found that 20% of all Smartphone owners have a radio app. While podcasts are also proving very popular – Absolute Radio alone had 3.5 million podcasts downloaded in September 2010. That’s it from me for now. If you have any questions on RAJAR or if you would like any further information please feel free to contact your RadioWorks representative or alternatively email Simon@RadioWorks.co.uk SOURCE: RAJAR Q3 2010