Rajar Q2 2013: National stations and networks

Reach

Total Global Radio UK maintained its dominance over the national stations and networks when it came to weekly reach, according to the latest Rajar results – up 4.4% year on year (YoY) to a total of 20,164,000 listeners each week, the first time since 2011 it has reached more than 20 million.

BBC Radio 2 followed with just short of 15.5 million weekly listeners – up 1.1% quarter on quarter (QoQ) and 6.8% YoY.

BBC Radio 1 fared slightly better this quarter after the blow it took in Q1. Despite being down -2.2% YoY, the station was up 7.4% in Q2 – a welcome shift from the -7.5% recorded at the start of the year, partly matched with improved figures for breakfast host Nick Grimshaw. The station secured an average of 11 million listeners per week.

Bauer’s new acquisition, Absolute Radio, has performed strongly with Absolute 80s up 19% QoQ and Total Absolute Radio Network up 15.8% QoQ amongst other well performing stations in the Absolute network.

Likewise, Bauer Radio will be celebrating its highest ever audience, reaching 14 million listeners for the first time, with the network’s Passion Portfolio seeing healthy quarterly and yearly increases, up 12.8% and 14.5%, respectively.

Meanwhile, BBC Radio FIVE LIVE decreased both QoQ and YoY, settling each week with 6 million loyal listeners.

Share

BBC Radio 2 claimed the top spot in terms of share of listening with 17.2 percentage points, followed by Total Global Radio (UK) with 16 percentage points, and BBC Radio 4 (including 4 Extra) with 13 percentage points.

All increases and decreases were marginal, with the greatest QoQ loss belonging to BBC Radio 1 at -1.5 percentage points over the year (up 0.1 percentage points QoQ). Meanwhile, Radio 2 and 4 both declined, though marginally, -0.5 percentage points and 0.7 percentage points, respectively.

Average hours

Few stations recorded any positive growth both across the quarter or year, with even the more popular stations and networks suffering losses.

BBC Radio 4 (including 4 Extra) ruled the roost in terms of average listening hours with 11.9 hours per listener per week, despite recording a -7% QoQ decrease.

BBC Radio 2 and 4 followed, down -4.2% and -7.3%, respectively.

Global Radio’s commercial networks Total LBC (UK), Gold Network (UK) and Total Global Radio were also in the top 10, though Total LBC (UK) was the only network of those to record any quarterly growth – up 4.1% YoY.

Total Real and Smooth also experienced losses (-5.9% both QoQ and YoY), but it was Smash Hits that took a real hit, down 29.3% to an average listening time of just 2.9 hours of pop classics.