Target For Share Or Target For Efficiency

Michael Hedges January 31, 2013 Follow on Twitter

Audience targeting is a strategy. Programmers learn that big shifts have consequences, some intended and some not. Commercial channel managers like salable targets, young people historically. But they’re subject to mood swings. The answer might be 30-somethings.

BBC Radio 2 blasted to its highest market share in years in the Q4 (September through mid-December) 2012 RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research) survey of UK radio listening. The channel has long ranked number one in the national standings but the 17.6% market share is up from 16.3% year on year. Radio 2, officially, targets listeners over 35 years with a fairly bubbly, reasonably contemporary mix of nice voices and tunes. This just might have attracted listeners from sister channel Radio 1, which fell to 7.4% market share from 8.5% after a strategy shift to attract more young people.

Perhaps it worked and perhaps it didn’t. The average age of BBC Radio 1 listeners has crept older and older, to the point more than half were in their mid-30s or older. The breakfast (morning) show host, age 39, was replaced for a younger model and the music decidedly shifted to teen favs. The result seems to have been a tide of 30-somethings to Radio 2.

Commercial channels on the national level benefited not a twit from the Radio 1 shift nor did they necessarily suffer from the Radio 2 gains. Outside of the Capital Radio quasi-national channel and real national channel TalkSport no commercial channel budged more than 0.1% market share year on year. Talk Sport was down to 1.8% market share from 2.1%.  

Overall listening in Q4 was up, slightly, year on year to a bit more than 47 million. The total BBC share was off, slightly, to 55.3% and the total commercial radio share was off, slightly, to 42.3%. The aggregate market share of national channels, both BBC and commercial, was up; 47.3% from 46.6% for the BBC and 12.6% from 11.8% for commercial channels. The gap between BBC and commercial radio has risen to 13%, typical for winter quarters. Given that no commercial competitors substantially benefited from the Radio 1 strategy change, the divide between BBC and commercial radio listeners seems to have hardened. There are BBC listeners and there are commercial radio listeners.

Local radio in the UK continues to suffer. The combined market share for BBC local radio stations fell to 7.9% of all listening, the lowest in years, from 8.9% year on year. Local commercial radio stations, the strongest part of the commercial radio sector, dropped to 29.7% aggregated market share from 30.6%. That, too, is the lowest market share for local commercial radio in years.

Budget cuts under the BBC’s Delivering Quality First action plan target about 7% of the local radio portion. On nearly all BBC local stations a networked early evening program has replaced local shows. Commercial broadcasters in the UK rejoiced at a rule change allowing networked programs, creating quasi-national channels and sending hoards of DJs to the dole. That evolution explains some audience loss but not all of it. Sustained audience growth for these quasi-national channels has been fleeting. Capital Radio, one of the first to take advantage of the new network rules two years ago, fell to 3.9% market share from 4.4% one year on.

Digital listening keeps increasing and very soon will be widely felt, or so enthusiasts have been saying for a decade. Across all platforms, digital listening increased to 33% of all listening from 29.1% year on year, the vast majority on the DAB platform. BBC 6Music, the alternative blend popular with 30-somethings and only available on digital platforms, had its best showing, 1.4% national market share, up from 1.2%.

London survey results were, in many respects, more dramatic. While BBC Radio 4 held the top spot, Radio 2 bolted – seriously – to 14.1% market share, highest in forever, from 10.9% year on year. Radio 1 was lower, 4.9% from 5.4%. The two biggest youth-appeal commercial stations – Capital London and Kiss – took substantial losses; Capital London down to 4.8% from 5.9% and Kiss down to 4.3% from 5.4%. The biggest winner was multi-platform Absolute Radio – popular, too, with 30-somethings. It posted its highest London markets share at 3.3%, up from 3.5% year on year.

See also in ftmKnowledge

Europe’s Radio – Northern Europe

Northern Europe’s radio has a very digital sound. And change is in the air. Economic challenges abound for both public and commercial broadcasters. The ftm Knowledge file reports on Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden and the UK. 144 pages PDF includes Resources (November 2012)

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Digital Radio - Possibilities and Probabilities

Digital radio has many platforms. From broadcast platforms to internet radio and rapidly emerging smartphone platforms, listeners and broadcasters have choices galore and decisions to make. Some regulators have made up their minds, others not, some hedging their bets. This ftm Knowledge file details the possibilities for digital broadcasting and the probabilities for success. Includes Resources 149 pages PDF (August 2012)

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