Listeners Pause As The Sound Fills Every Space

Michael Hedges October 24, 2019 Follow on Twitter

Digital platforms aren’t just a big deal, they are the only deal. Consumers across the globe, largely, have embraced the hardware powering the transaction of ones and zeros toward infinity. Fast, clever and attractive, they have become faster, much more clever and ever more attractive. And everything in the great digital supply chain has traversed from expensive, thus the enduring appearance of luxury, to cheap, even the content driving it. Digital culture has become the surrounding culture; the sound is everywhere.

Data from the UK RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research) joint stakeholder measurement committee shares the most recent radio audience delivery estimates. Some of this research from three months of interviews ending mid-September is rather transient, individual channels and stations have gained or lost listeners. The nitty-gritty, however, is in the change of listener behavior. The digital share of all radio listening has risen to 56.8% from 52.4% during the same period one year on, the fastest rate of change in six years.

RAJAR measures three digital platforms: digital audio broadcasting (DAB), TV set-top boxes and online/apps. DAB technology has been around for nearly 30 years. Its growth rate has slowed measurably; 39.7% from 38.1% year on year. The set-top box, also last generation, is a listening platform for 4.2%, down from 4.7%. Listening via online and mobile apps, inconveniently combined, rose to 13% from 9.6%. RAJAR does not measure streaming services like Spotify or podcasts, unlike the German AG.MA radio measurement contractor. It did report that listening to podcasts in the UK rose by more than 2 million, one year on, to 8.4 million, more than one in six of the measured 15 years and older national listening pool, roughly the same portion of those listeners who claim to use smart speakers every day.

All of this is useful context for radio listening estimates for the Q3 period, essentially summer plus a couple of weeks. With big radio stars - and media buyers - taking holidays, summer radio listening can be dull. Summer listening can be good for escape, too. And this past summer was filled with Brexit, which many in the UK would like some distance from. In the national survey, overall listening was slightly lower, as it has been over the last six quarters. The reach share for BBC radio channels, on aggregate, was 49.4%, down significantly from 51.7%, year on year. UK commercial radio got an almost equal boost; 48.1% reach share from 45.7%.

Nearly all BBC Radio channels posted lower reach share results, exceptions were arts and culture channel Radio 3 and digital sports channel Radio Five Extra. Entertainment channel BBC Radio 2 remained on top of the national survey with a much lower 15.9% reach share, from 17.1% year on year. News/talk channel Radio 4 held second place, also lower at 11.0% reach share from 11.6%. Youth-oriented Radio 1 remains in third place with 5.8% reach share, down from 6.0%.

Commercial channel Heart (Global Radio) held 4th place; 5.8% reach share from 5.9% one year on. sister channel Classic FM, classical music excerpts, moved into 5th place nationally with 4.0% reach share from 3.5%, the channel’s best showing in more than a decade. Global Radio’s talk channel LBC also showed a growth spurt to 10th place nationally, 2.5% reach share from 2.0%. The other high-growth channel was all-digital Kisstory (Bauer Media), non-stop music from 1999; 1.3% reach share from 1.0%. (See RAJAR national radio reach share trend chart here)

Results for the London market were similar but, of course, different. BBC Radio 4 was top ranked, as usual, with 14.4% reach share, up from 13.6% year on year. Radio 2, ranked number two, was hit hard, dropping to 10.1% reach share from 12.4%. Commercial talk station LBC held 3rd place; 6.7% reach share from 6.6%. And, too, Classic FM jumped to 4th spot in London; 4.5% reach share from 3.4%. Magic London placed 5th; 4.1% reach share from 4.4%. (See RAJAR London reach share trend chart here)

See also in ftmKnowledge

Digital Transitions

Media's transition from analogue to digital has opened opportunities and unleashed challenges beyond the imagination. Media is connected and mobile yet fettered by old rules and new economics. Broadcasters and publishers borrow from the past while inventing whole new services. This ftm Knowledge file explores the changes. 88 pages PDF (March 2012)

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