Landslide Numbers In Audience Survey

Michael Hedges May 13, 2011 Follow on Twitter

With baited breath, broadcasters await survey results, that quarterly panic. Some, typically, are relieved when the day comes and others are relieved from their jobs. Occasionally there’s euphoria. Occasionally there are wobbly feet.

First quarter 2011 UK RAJAR (Radio Joint Radio Audience Research) numbers probably caused panic because there was, literally, little reason to panic. Overall radio weekly reach in the national survey hit 91.6%, 47.3 million people touching that dial. It’s an historic high, nearly 7% greater than the same period five years ago. Average weekly hours listened rose to 22.4 from 19.8 year on year.

Those good people, it seems, were into radio during the first quarter, January through March. Both the BBC and commercial broadcasters can look with satisfaction on this gift from the survey sage. Several channels posted historic – or nearly – high audience shares. Some made remarkable rebounds. “Overall it's been a great set of results for radio with record reach achieved for all radio, all commercial radio as well as for some individual stations,” said media buyer Carat’s Mark Williamson, quoted in MediaTel. (See Q1 UK national radio listening chart here)

UK commercial broadcasters have a great deal to crow about. Listening to commercial channels rose on aggregate to 42.6% of all listening, the highest first quarter result in five years. Lower was listening to BBC channels, 55.0% aggregate market share down from 56.5% year on year but increases at specific BBC channels almost makes up for the pause. (See BBC v. commercial radio gap chart here)

BBC Radio 2 kept the top rank in the national survey but fell to (only) a 16.0% market share from 17.2% one year on, the biggest year on year drop of any national channel. Radio 2 faces continual market share pressure from commercial channels in the adult-contemporary vein. In the London survey Radio 2 fell precipitously to 10.7% markets share from 13.7% one year on. (See Q1 London radio listening chart here)

News and talk BBC Radio 4 ranks number 2 with 12.3% market share, up a tad year on year from 12.2%. There were a few big news items attracting attention during the first quarter – revolutions in North Africa and the Gulf, earthquakes, tsunamis and nuclear melt-downs in Japan. All the shocking news near and far drove up the Radio 4 market share in the London survey to 15.5% market share from 13.7%. The market share for the BBC World Service rose to 0.9% in the national survey from 0.6% one year on. In the London market survey LBC News posted a 1.1% market share, its highest in more than five years.

Pop channel BBC Radio 1 is clearly in a slide, falling to 8.7% market share from 9.5% one year on. It’s the lowest market share for Radio 1 in six years. Again, there’s considerable pressure from commercial channels both local and quasi-national and there will be pressure on BBC radio programming chief Tim Davie to actually make some long expected line-up changes. Radio 1’s market share in London, however, was up to 5.6% from 5.0% year on year.

Commercial quasi-national adult contemporary channel Heart also felt pressure, dropping to 4.9% market share from 5.8% one year on. Local London Heart 106.2 gained slightly to 4.9% market share from 4.7%.

Bigger news and certainly good for the commercial radio sector was the rebound of Capital in the London market after three weak quarters. Owner Global Radio recently introduced the Capital brand as a quasi-national channel, debuting in Q4 2010 with 4.1% market share, which has grown slightly to 4.2%. In the London survey Capital ranks 3rd among all stations with a 6.1% market share, up a bit from 6.0% one year on.

Both (real) national commercial channels Classic FM and TalkSport posted gains. Classic FM appears to have halted its two year slid, rising to 3.9% in the national survey from 3.7% year on year. TalkSport did even better, in relative terms, increasing market share to 2.1% from 1.6% one year on. Both channels gained in the London survey.

Those new platforms certainly figured into the overall rise in UK radio listening. Listening share via digital platforms – DAB, DVT, mobile phones, internet – is 26.5%. The DAB share of listening has slowed, increasing to 16.7% from 15.1% year on year. Listening via the internet, far lower in the UK than the ret of Europe, rose to 3.6% from 2.9% one year on. Mobile phones are used for radio listening by 13.8% of all adults, up from 12.6%. The listening share for good old AM and FM dropped to 65.4% from 66.7%.

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