Extra Channels Yield Extra Audience

Michael Hedges October 27, 2011 Follow on Twitter

Media brand building is more than simply choosing a clever name, not to forget that unique program plan. Legacy brands are stronger than ever. But new brands are quickly populating digital platforms. Once consumers find the addresses, they will either find something they expect or, well, something else.

Radio listening grew again in the third quarter, according to UK radio measurement institute RAJAR (Radio Joint Measurement). Year on year total radio penetration rose to 90.7% and listening hours rose to 22.8 hours per listener. Total radio penetration was slightly off the record setting 91.7% in Q2. The increase in total listeners, year to year, was the smallest since 2009. RAJAR has not reported a decrease in radio listening since 2008.

BBC national channels, in aggregate, increased national audience share to 46.1% from 45.4% one year on. The total audience share of BBC local stations continued to drop, falling to 8.3% from 9.0%. National commercial channels aggregate market share rose to 11.5% from 11.2%. Falling to 31.8% was the aggregate local commercial market share from 32.2%. The BBC – commercial radio gap increased to 11.2%.

The top three channels in the national survey did not change position; BBC Radio 2 (15.9%), Radio 4 (12.0%) and Radio 1 (9.1%). Radio 2 and Radio 4 increased audience share year on year. Radio 1 was unchanged. BBC Five Live, however, fell to its lowest market share in more than eight years, 4.1% down from 4.7% on year on.

BBC classical music channel Radio 3 dropped a shade to 1.1% market share from 1.2% year on year. Schedule changes were blamed. Most other BBC channels gained, if slightly. Only 6Music was off slightly. Of the gainers, most notable were BBC 4 Extra, recently rebranded from BBC 7, Five Extra, boosted by cricket, BBC World Service and BBC Asia.

UK commercial broadcasters have scurried to create quasi-national networks, which have had mixed impact. The Heart network fell to 5.4% market share from 5.9% one year on and the Magic network dropped to 2.4% from 2.8% market share. The Capital network, just now one year old, posted 4.3% market share. The Smooth network, soft hits, gained slightly.

National commercial channel Classic FM, which features extracts of the best known classical music repertoire, fell to 3.2% from 3.5% one year on and its lowest market share in more than eight years. TalkSport dropped to 1.9% market from 2.1% one year on.

The Absolute Radio – all channels aggregated - dropped to 1.0% from 1.2%. The Times of India owned broadcaster, along with the BBC, has pushed multi-platform radio and multiple brand extensions. Its Absolute 80’s has the biggest audience of the commercial digital channels. Absolute 90’s and Absolute 00’s dropped a bit. There’s also the Absolute Classic Rock and soon Absolute 60’s and Absolute 70’s. Oh, there’s also Absolute Radio, the main channel. They can be found on FM, DAB, set top boxes, internet and every other platform; platform-neutral we call it.

BBC radio is one big brand extension. It’s latest experiment renaming Radio 7 as Radio 4 Extra seems to have bumped up the audience. Radio 4 is the main BBC news-talk channel. Radio 4 Extra broadcasts archived features, comedy and entertainment programs largely from Radio 4.

BBC 5 Live, predominantly sports and news, has had its own broad extension, 5 Live Sports Extra, almost ten years old. Both Radio 4 Extra and 5 Live Sports Extra saw fairly significant audience gains in the Q3 (mid-July to mid-September) RAJAR survey.

Brand extension and product extension are marketing tools of considerable utility. Absolute Radio is the successor to one of the UK best known brand extensions that began as Virgin Records. Eventually there was the music store brand, radio channel and on to an airline under the Virgin brand name. The Virgin radio brand stumbled in the UK as it has in France. In theory, a strong brand can be successfully leveraged to new lines at a far lower cost of entry.

In television marketing brand extensions are the rule rather than the exception, less so with radio though public broadcasters – like the BBC – often see advantage in keeping a simple, consistent brand identity and building radio and television broads in line. New digital platforms are filled with brand extension channels, advertising being sold in aggregate.

But every marketing person knows the Coke – Diet Coke – New Coke legend. When the brand extension – in that case New Coke – fails as a product, the main brand can suffer spectacularly. If consumers are no longer certain about the brand values the main brand can be deleveraged, not a pretty sight. Related products – 5 Live and 5 Live Sports Extra, for example – are at far less risk; radio, the BBC and sports being common. More “fuzzy” radio brands – music channels in particular – risk considerable confusion, something measurement practices can’t sort out.

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