Rajar Q2 2016: National stations and networks

Reach

Global, Bauer and BBC stations continue to reach the greatest number of listeners each week, with a 2.1% increase over the quarter seeing Total Global Radio secure an impressive 22.7 million.

TGR’s performance was modest in comparison to some, however, with Bauer Radio Total – the next best performer – up 7% over the period to 17.8 million.

Similarly, BBC Radio 4 (including 4 Extra) and BBC Radio 4 were up 8.7% and 8.9%, respectively.

Meanwhile, BBC Radio 2’s weekly reach declined slightly over the period (-1.4%), while BBC Radio 1 was down -4.6% quarter on quarter and -9.4% year on year.

Elsewhere, Wireless Group (including national stations) saw an impressive 15.3% uplift in weekly reach after the addition of TalkRadio,T2 and Virgin to its portfolio, while Global’s LBC Network (UK) was up 12.3%.

Other stations that did well include Capital XTRA UK (up 10%), BBC Asian Network UK (up 20.3%), Jazz FM (up 18%) and UCB 1 (up 66.9%).

The most significant decline came from Bauer’s Planet Rock which was down -22.1% over the quarter, followed by Absolute 80s (-8.1%), Absolute 70s (-7.7%) and Kerrang (-6.7%). All other declines in weekly reach were moderate.

It is worth noting that the market looks a little different to Q1 following the arrival of newly reporting stations. These include Magic Chilled, Mellow Magic, a revived Virgin Radio and talkSPORT2.

Share

There was little change to the share of listening for most national stations or networks in the second quarter, with a 0.2 percentage point increase taking the market leader – Total Global Radio – up to 19.3%.

However, BBC Radio 2, a steady second-place holder, recorded the biggest decline in the market.

The station was down -1.4 percentage points, dropping to a 17.2% share – its lowest share in more than a year.

Still, despite the decline, it was not enough to cause any changes in the rankings and the station is still hugely dominant.

Elsewhere, Bauer Radio (Total) secured a 14.8% share (up 0.7pp), followed closely by BBC Radio 4 (including 4 Extra) with 13.2% (up 0.1pp).

All other increases and decreases were, as is normal, marginal.

Average hours

As with the start of the year, Q2 witnessed some disappointments for a large number of stations, as well as a selection of notable gains.

BBC Radio 4 (including 4 Extra) was knocked off the top spot following a -4.1% decline. The station dipped to an average of 11.6 hours listening time, per listener, each week.

The drop meant sister station BBC Radio 2 was up in the top spot (despite a -3.3% decline). The home of Ken Bruce and Chris Evans recorded average listing times of 11.7 hours.

Moving from strength to strength, digital-only station BBC 6 Music was up 3.2% to 9.7 hours (and was up 6.6% over the year).

The really big gains, however, belonged to the likes of Gold Network UK, up 19.1% to 8.1 hours, while Global’s Smooth Extra was up 23.4% to 5.8 hours.