RAJAR Q2 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, with 326 million listening hours, and 46% of the population tuning in to the radio via any digital platform up from 45% last quarter.

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 an increased listener share of 43.3% versus the BBC’s 54.3%. On a local level commercial radio completely dominates the BBC, delivering 26.3 million listeners compared to the BBC’s 8.9 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; despite a drop in listener numbers they still deliver a reach of 2,072,000 adult listeners.  However, in terms of listening share it is Heart London which has shown strong quarter on quarter growth to take the top position with 5.3%.  Going back to the reach table, Magic 105.4 have maintained their reach from the previous quarter delivering 1,951,000, and Heart London (1,798,000) has held off Kiss 100 (1,740,000) to take third position. A 22.2% quarter on quarter growth to 974,000 from Total Absolute Radio (London) has seen them take fifth position in terms of reach with LBC (809,000) dropping to sixth. Note: It is possible to measure Classic FM by its London only transmitter, which delivers 1,269,000.

LONDON BREAKFAST: The much talked about ‘battle of the breakfast shows’ has again been won by Capital Radio London, with 1,156,000 listeners to their show from 6-10am. This is the second 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 although their reach has dropped slightly, they will no doubt be happy to retain the number one spot.  Neil Fox’s Magic Breakfast Show (5-9am) has retained second place with 760,000 listeners, whilst Kiss Breakfast with Rickie, Melvin & Charlie (6-9am) have managed to achieve third position with 735,000 weekly listeners – beating Jamie and Harriet on Heart London (6-9am) who achieved 734,000 listeners.

NEW STATIONS: This is the first RAJAR for a number of rebranded stations, with the biggest change being the Orion Media owned, Midlands based, Free Radio stations. Previously reporting as BRMB, Mercia, Wyvern and Beacon, the stations are now part of the Free Radio Network. We often see poor results when stations first rebrand, with listeners getting used to the new name and station and Free Radio has proved no different, dropping from a combined reach of 801,000 to 708,000. Exeter FM also dropped slightly in reach after their rebrand to Radio Exe,but going from 28,000 to 25,000 won’t phase them too much. Eagle Extra, previously County Sound, appears to have bucked the trend, increasing their weekly reach from 6,000 to 13,000. As have Heart Cornwall – previously 105-107 Atlantic FM – who joined the massive Heart Network and increased their weekly reach from 66,000 to 68,000.

REGIONAL REVIEW: Briefly looking around the regions; Isle of Wight Radio, recent winner of the Arqiva Station of the Year (for under 300,000 TSA), have posted strong weekly reach figures of 36,000 listeners, 30% of the available population. In Harrogate (North Yorkshire), Stray FM has seen positive quarter on quarter growth, delivering 47,000 listeners (33%) up 3,000 listeners on the previous results. And, if you’re heading down to Weymouth to see the Olympic Sailing, why not tune in to Wessex FM who have posted a weekly reach of 40% (47,000 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 6.4 hours. Keeping a focus on the national analogue stations – talkSPORT held on to second place despite not being able to continue their record reach of previous quarters, achieving 2.9 million weekly listeners. While Absolute Radio (National + London) managed improved results, up 9.4% quarter on quarter to 1,763,000. 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 3.2 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 almost 7.4 million listeners, closely followed by the Capital Network on just under 7 million listeners. Kiss UK has delivered 4.3 million, Magic UK 3.7 million, Smooth Radio UK 3.2 million, and Real Radio UK 2.4 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 grown to account for a 31.5% share of all radio listening, with 46% of people now listening to digital radio, either through DAB, DTV, the internet or ‘other’. The latest RAJAR figures recorded that 21.8 million adults (41.7%) claim to live in a household which has a DAB receiver. The number one commercial, digital only radio station in the UK is now Smash Hits Radio, with over one million listeners (1,011,000). Also owned by Bauer, The Hits has dropped to second place with 973,000. Planet Rock increased their reach again by 10.1% quarter on quarter to take third position with a reach figure of 948,000. Absolute Radio 80s delivered 864,000 listeners to achieve fourth place with Heat Radio delivering 713,000.

GROUP PERFORMANCE: The UK’s largest commercial radio group is Global Radio (delivering a total of 19.3 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. GMG Radio, who are now a part of Global Radio (subject to confirmation from the competitions commission)has delivered a 5.5 million weekly reach, whilst UTV Radio, owners of talkSPORT, reaches 4.3 million listeners.

TARGETED STATIONS: Premier Christian Radio, broadcasting in London on analogue and across the UK via digital (online and DAB) have improved their quarter on quarter reach and now deliver 172,000 listeners every week. There has also been quarter on quarter increases for Sunrise Radio (London) who reach 286,000 weekly listeners.

MOBILE LISTENING: RAJAR shows that 18% of adults and 35% 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 providing advertisers with an additional point of contact. A recent RAB / Other Lines Of Enquiries study into mobile radio listening showed 32% of 16-34 year olds have listened to radio via mobile (at some stage), and 20% listen at least once a week.

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 meSimon@RadioWorks.co.uk

SOURCE: RAJAR Q2 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 Q4 2011 – Comment

Here’s my brief comment on the latest commercial radio RAJAR figures…

It’s great to see Digital Radio listening figures up. With 40% of the population now claiming to live in a household with a DAB set and digital listening carrying a share of 29.1% things seem to be heading in the right direction for Digital Radio. Absolute Radio really are the group leading the way when it comes to listening via a Digital platform as it accounts for 71% of their total listening.

The news of increased listeners to the Capital London breakfast show will no doubt raise a few questions into Johnny Vaughan’s departure from the show. Capital London’s breakfast show is now fronted by Dave Berry, alongside Lisa Snowdon, it is going to be interesting to see how they perform with their first set of results next quarter. As a whole, Capital London have had a very good set of figures, up 15% year-on-year whilst the Capital Network is up 4.7% year-on-year, which would suggest their recent marketing activity has been well received.

talkSPORT’s investment in live sport has seen them achieve 3.2 million listeners. The quarter’s results included coverage of the Rugby World Cup and Premier League Football. talkSPORT will be hoping that continued investment in live sport, such as this summer’s Euro 2012 football tournament, will help them continue growth.

Si Pearce is the Head of Insight at RadioWorks – the UK’s Premier Radio Advertising Agency

RAJAR Q4 2011

Another Good Quarter for Digital Listening!

This Quarter saw an increase in Digital Listening with 300 million listening hours and 23.1 million people tuning into the radio via a digital platform  

RAJAR, the radio audience survey shows 46.7 million adults (15+) in the UK listen to the radio every week. Commercial Radio reaches 32.8 million listeners and achieves a listener share of 42.4% versus the BBC’s 55.5%. On a local level commercial radio completely dominates the BBC delivering 26.2 million listeners compared to the BBC’s 9.6 million for local and regional services.

In the London marketplace Capital London has held on to the number one spot with a 14.9% year on year increase taking them to a reach of 2,254,000 listeners. An improved result from Magic 105.4 sees them go above the two million mark to 2,167,000.  In terms of listening share Capital London and Magic also hold the top two positions with 5.9% and 5.7%. In terms of reach Heart 106.2 take the third position with 1.9 million listeners per week but poor listening hours has seen the drop to fifth place in terms of share with only 4.6%. Improved quarter-on-quarter results from Kiss see them jump into fourth place in terms of reach 1,874,000 and strong hours places them just behind Magic in terms of share (5.4%). LBC also had a strong quarter with reach up 15% to 967,000 and share up to 5.1%. The national station Classic FM also reports London only figures and delivered over 1.2 million listeners with a share of 3.9%.

The much talked about ‘battle of the breakfast shows’ has been won again by the now departed Johnny Vaughan and Lisa on Capital Radio London with 1.3 million listeners to their show from 6-10. Johnny left the station at the end of last year and has been replaced by former XFM and Capital weekend DJ Dave Berry. Also known for presenting shows on MTV, Berry has been presenting the Capital Breakfast show with Lisa Snowdon since the beginning of the year – the next quarter’s RAJAR results will show us how he’s performed in his first term at the helm of London’s largest Commercial Radio Breakfast show. Neil Fox’s Magic Breakfast Show (5-9am) increased its listeners to take second place with 848,000. Kiss 100’s Rickie, Melvin & Charlie (6-9am) managed to add 138,000 listeners to their previous total to take them to third most listened to breakfast show in London with 838,000 weekly listeners. Whilst Jamie and Harriet on Heart London (6-9am) dropped into fourth position with 814,000 listeners.

Briefly looking around the regions; in the Isle of Man, Manx Radio reached 69,000 adults (58% of all available adults in their TSA – Total Survey Area). The newly renamed Manchester station 106.1 Real XS (was 106.1 Rock Radio) has delivered 131,000 reach (6%) in their first set of results. In Wakefield the micro station Ridings FM delivered 44,000 listeners (15%). Broadcasting in Edinburgh, Forth 1 FM, which is a part of the new Bauer Place Portfolio, pulled in 341,000 (31%), and in Morecambe, The Bay achieved 108,000 listeners (38%).

Classic FM remains the most listened to (single) commercial radio station in the UK, despite a poor quarter, with a reach of 5.3 million adults. Keeping a focus on the national analogue stations – talkSPORT improved their reach by a further 2% quarter-on-quarter to just under 3.2 million listeners whilst Absolute Radio stayed around the 1.6 million mark. The Total Absolute Radio Network, which includes Absolute Classic Rock and the 80s, 90s, and 00s stations have remained at 2.8 million listeners and will hope to add to this with the first set of results from the recently launched Absolute Radio 60s and 70s next quarter.

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 7.4 million listeners, closely followed by the Capital Network on 7 million listeners. Kiss UK has delivered 4.1 million, Magic UK 3.8 million, Smooth Radio UK 3.3 million, and Total Real Radio 2.6 million.

Digital listening has grown to account for a 29.1% share of all radio listening, with a weekly reach of 44.4% of people listening to digital radio, either through DAB, DTV, the internet or ‘other’. The latest RAJAR figures recorded 20.9 million adults (40%) claiming to live in a household which has a DAB receiver. The number one commercial, digital only, radio station in the UK is now Smash Hits with over one million listeners (1,004,000). Also owned by Bauer, The Hits takes second place with 984,000. After impressive results last quarter Absolute 80s has dropped in reach to 828,000 whilst the independently owned Planet Rock takes fourth position achieving 811,000 listeners.

The UK’s largest commercial radio group is Global Radio (19.4 million listeners), thanks in part to the strength of the Heart and Capital Network of stations. Bauer Radio is the second largest commercial group, with a 13.3 million reach. GMG Radio has seen their overall reach increase to almost 5.9 million whilst UTV Radio, owners of talkSPORT, reach 4,466,000 listeners.

Sunrise Radio, broadcasting in London on analogue and across the UK via digital (online and DAB) now achieves a reach of 490,000. But there have been year-on-year declines across Kismat Radio in London, Buzz Asia and Premier Christian Radio who delivered results of 69,000 adults; 108,000 adults and 89,000 adults respectively.

Finally onto mobile listening – RAJAR shows that 15.1% of adults and 32.2% 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. 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 on Radio or Radio Advertising please feel free to contact your RadioWorks representative or alternatively email Simon@RadioWorks.co.uk

SOURCE: RAJAR Q4 2011

Si Pearce is Head of Insight at RadioWorks – the UK’s Premier Radio Advertising Agency

The House of Reeves

After the events of last year’s riots RadioWorks wanted to help out one of London’s worst effected business, the House of Reeves. Thanks to the generosity of radio stations including LBC, Radio Jackie, talkSPORT, Premier, Absolute and Smooth – RadioWorks were able to secure free of charge airtime. Their message, created by Maple Street Studio’s, was a simple one… We’re still open.

Today, I travelled down to Croydon with RadioWorks founder and CEO Michael Charnley-Heaton to visit Trevor Reeves and the business. We can report back that despite the tough economic situation the business is still going strong and selling a great range of furniture. We wish them all the best for the future.

RAJAR Q1 2011 – Comment

Well, what a brilliant set of RAJAR results for commercial radio! The highest ever reach figures, strong year on year growth for the national commercial stations and networks, and record results for the UK’s only national commercial speech station – talkSPORT.

There will no doubt be a few bottles of bubbly open over at Leicester Square today as the team over at Global celebrates strong results for both Heart London and Capital London. Capital have hit their highest reach in more than six years and the Johnny and Lisa breakfast show again rules the airwaves, even beating Radio 1’s Chris Moyles (by 100,000).

In the digital world Jazz FM have achieved their highest ever figures of 495,000 and the Kiss Network (which includes the FM stations) has also performed well bringing in over 4 million listeners. As a whole Digital Radio listening has performed well, now achieving a 26.5% share and a 43.1% weekly reach. And, with 38% of people now claiming to have a DAB set at home Digital Radio UK will be hoping these figures will continue to grow.

All the latest RAJAR Analysis can be found at http://www.radioworks.co.uk/rajar-analysis

RAJAR Q1 2011

This Quarter saw All Commercial Radio record its highest ever reach, delivering over 34 million adults every week

Commercial Radio as a whole has performed well verses the BBC, now achieving a share of listening of 42.6% verses the BBC’s 55%. It is on a local level that commercial radio delivers, with 27 million listeners compared to 10 million for the BBC’s local and regional services. Across the board UK Radio has every right to be happy, as a new record of 91.6% of the population tune in to listen every week, delivering over 1,000 million hours.In the London marketplace Capital London has regained the number one spot after a strong set of figures that saw them reach 2,179,000, an increase of 11% on last quarter. Capital also improved on their listening hours to award them with the highest listening share in London, 6.1%. After four consecutive quarters as London’s number one station Magic 105.4 has now come in at second place in terms of share with 5.3% (1,998,000 reach). LBC’s consistently strong hours have helped them finish third in the London share table with 5.1%. Like Capital, Heart London also improved on their last quarter results increasing their reach by 19% to 2,107,000 and achieving a share of 4.9%, making them the fourth placed London station. Sticking with share Kiss 100 come in at fifth place with 4.7% (1.8 million listeners) a long way ahead of their next closest rival. Note, Classic FM in London  delivered over 1.4 million listeners with a share of 5%. The much talked about ‘battle of the breakfast shows’ has been won again by Johnny and Lisa on Capital Radio London. The duo managed to bring in over 1.2 million listeners to their 6-10am breakfast show ensuring they keep a strong grip on their number one spot. Improved results from Jamie and Harriet on Heart London (6-9am) sees them climb up to second place with 860,000 listeners. Whilst Neil Fox’s Magic FM breakfast show (5-9am) has dropped off slightly to third with 839,000 listeners. Kiss 100’s Rickie, Melvin and Charlie (6-9am)have also seen a slight drop, now delivering 761,000 listeners leaving them in fourth position. Briefly looking around the regions; in York, Minster FM reached 86,000 adults (28% of all available adults in their TSA – Total Survey Area). In Weston-Super-Mare the micro station Nova Radio delivered 19,000 listeners (14%). Broadcasting in Glasgow Clyde 1 FM, which is a part of the new Bauer Place Portfolio, pulled in 579,000 (31%) and in Blackpool Radio Wave 96.5 FMachieved 80,000 listeners (33%). Focusing on the North East, the recently re-branded Capital North East has seen a drop in performance as it delivered a reach of 565,000 listeners, down from 604,000 last quarter (more on that rebrand later). Metro Radio (366,000), Star North East (42,000) and the regional station Real Radio North East (347,000) have all increased their reach quarter on quarter. Whilst TFM and the third regional station, Smooth Radio North East have remained static with 191,000 and 374,000 respectively. Classic FM remains the most listened to (single) commercial radio station in the UK with a reach of 6 million adults, showing a year on year increase of 10%. But when looking at the national stations it is the Sony Award winning UK station of the year talkSPORT that should take all the plaudits as they have again brought in record figures of 3.2 million listeners! The station has achieved a 37% year on year increase and was up on last quarter’s record figures. Rumours persist about the possible sale of Absolute Radio and these latest figures, which show a slight overall improvement on last quarters, may make them more attractive to potential suitors. Total Absolute Radio have improved their reach slightly to almost 1.4 million and the Absolute Radio Network as a whole is up to 2.3 million thanks to the inclusion of Absolute Radio 00s which delivered 170,000. Their range of digital stations have had mixed results; Absolute Radio 90s is up and now reaches 317,000, Absolute Radio Classic Rock is also up (342,000), whilst Absolute Radio 80s dropped off slightly to 624,000. Digital listening has grown slightly to account for a 26.5% share of all radio listening, with a weekly reach of 43.1% of people listening to digital radio, either through DAB; DTV; the internet or ‘other’. The latest RAJAR figures recorded 19.7 million adults (38%) as claiming to live in a household which has a DAB receiver. Bauer’s digital stations continue to remain strong in the digital only UK market. The Hits and Smash Hits both achieved over 1 million listeners, making them the two most listened to commercial digital only stations. The independently owned Planet Rock takes third position achieving year on year growth of 14.8% and now reaching 797,000 listeners. The UK’s largest commercial radio group is Global Radio (19.6 million listeners), the owners of the Heart Network of stations which delivers 7.4 million listeners across the UK. This January saw Global Radio rebrand a number of their stations to Capital Radio, backed by a star studded TV commercial Capital are really going after the Radio 1 audience. This is the first set of RAJAR figures to measure the stations since the rebrand and surprisingly there has been little change with the results, as the stations still have a combined reach of 6.7 million (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 13.4 million reach. GMG Radio who recently launched Smooth on to the National DAB platform achieving a reach of 3 million, have seen their overall reach increase to 5.3 million. UTV Radio, including those impressive results from talkSPORT, delivers 4.4 million reach. This is the first set of RAJAR results for a number of stations including Absolute Radio 00s (170,000), GEM 106 in the East Midlands (470,000) and all the newly rebranded Capital Radio stations. Overall the Capital stations have remained static (as shown above) but there have been some notable results: – Capital Birmingham (was Galaxy) now reaches 459,000 (up from 416,000); Capital South Wales (was Red Dragon) has dropped to 310,000 (from 340,000); Capital Manchester has also dropped to now 505,000; whilst Capital Scotland has increased to 460,000. For a full list of all the changes and results affecting the new Capital stations please feel free to contact your RadioWorks representive on 0207 90-70-6-70, or alternatively email Simon@RadioWorks.co.uk 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 5.6% and now achieves a reach of 469,000. Colourful Radio delivered 27,000 listeners, while Buzz Asia and Premier Christian Radio (both in London) delivered 111,000 adults and 135,000 adults respectively. Finally, listening to the radio via a mobile phone… 11% of adults and almost 29% of 15-24’s 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 3.6 million podcasts downloaded in March 2011 (with Frank Skinner’s show achieving 883,000). 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 2011 All the latest RAJAR Analysis can be found at http://www.radioworks.co.uk/rajar-analysis

RAJAR Q4 2010 – Comment

TalkSPORT have again had a great set of RAJAR figures and have for the first time in their history broken the 3 million mark. Perhaps unsurprisingly 81% of the 3.1 million listeners are men whilst 55% of the audience are ABC1. The addition of live coverage of a second Premier League game on Sunday (which joins the Saturday game) is no doubt one of the contributing factors to the stations success.
The London stories are all about Kiss, Capital and the reliability of the RAJAR methodology. Kiss can be very proud of themselves as they jump up to second position in the London marketplace and no doubt there will be a few sore heads over at Bauer as they celebrate being first (Magic FM) and second in London.

Capital’s fall from second to fifth (in terms of share) is big news but poor performances all round for the London stations (a drop in listening of 5.3%) is urging some to question the reliability of the RAJAR methodology. Paul Kennedy, Research Director at RAJAR, has written a quick guide explaining the measurement tool on the BBC Radio blog, available by clicking here but if you have any questions regarding RAJAR please feel free to contact me on 0207 90-70-6-70 or drop me an email, Simon@RadioWorks.co.uk

RAJAR Q3 2010 – Comment

At a time when iPods, iPhones, and iPads seem to be taking over the world this quarter’s RAJAR results have been great for Radio as almost 91% of the entire population are tuning in every week! And this growth has mainly been boosted by the Commercial Radio sector as stations grow their audience.
talkSPORT have helped to drive this growth with an outstanding performance during quarter three. Their highest ever set of figures of almost 3 million weekly listeners were no doubt boosted by the World Cup finals but it would be great to see the station sustain the figures into the next quarter. Absolute Radio have also delivered their best set of figures since the re-brand from Virgin, aided by Absolute 80s bringing in over half a million listeners.
And here’s a thought for you…. today it was announced that ITV’s Daybreak show achieved 530,000 viewers. Did you know that there are six stations in London alone whose breakfast shows have more listeners than that!