As Rajar publishes its third quarter results for the radio market, Carat’s AV planning team assesses the data.
It’s been a big win for radio with RAJAR’s Q3 2015 results released today with many record breaking numbers and therefore celebrations. Weekly radio listening numbers were strong, reaching 89.3% of the population but the bigger victory was the increase in hours (+1.4% YoY).
Within this, BBC radio have blown it out the park with increases nearly across the board; this comes at a very important time as they are under intense scrutiny over the Charter Renewal. BBC Radio 2 remains significantly head and shoulders above the rest reaching 15.3m with Radio 4 the closest behind at 10.7m.
What with such a great result for non-commercial, you might anticipate commercial to have dropped their share but all commercial share has jumped from 43.7% to 44% in the last year. Global was the big network winner, reaching 22m per week for an average of 194 hours. Bauer was also up with 16.7million people listening for 146m hours.
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We also had some reach record breakers due to the success of their sister stations: Heart (9.1m), Kiss (5.4m), Absolute (2.2m), BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra (392,000) and Absolute 80s (300,000).
So why have the results so successful?
It’s a combination of more stations and choice, the increase in digital platform listening and improved content. From a commercial perspective, ad funded programming and sponsorships have developed from traditional name badging into fantastically integrated content, for example X Men’s takeover of X FM from last year is the award winner that keeps giving.
What will be even more interesting will be looking at the Q4 results and into 2016. Next quarter will show the results of the transition from X FM to Radio X (which moved the day after the end of Q3 RAJAR) which we anticipate to see a significant increase.
2016 has huge change for the radio industry with the launch of Digital 2 and the respective channels. These channels plus commercial channels looking to hold share are sure to increase their marketing around this time which should lead to higher radio listening and awareness.
Next year will also boast the Olympics and Euros which are likely to increase radio listening on sports channels to new levels.
Michael Williams, head of AV Planning, Carat
Flora Williams, AV planning director, Carat
Mike Wood, AV planning manager, Carat
