BBC Increases Its Lead Over Commercial Radio In Latest RAJAR Figures

BBC Radio has widened the gap between public service and commercial radio’s share of listening, according to the latest RAJAR figures released this morning.

The data, which covers the three months to December 1999, shows All BBC Radio’s share of listening increasing by 1.0% points to 51.3%, when compared to the previous period (Q3). At the same time All Commercial’s share slipped back 1.1% points to 46.7%, its lowest level since the new RAJAR methodology was introduced a year ago. The remaining 2% of listening is accounted for by stations not included in the RAJAR survey.

Both Local and National Commercial stations’ share of listening fell in this survey, by 0.8% points and 0.3% points respectively, as did BBC Local radio. However, BBC Network Radio’s strong performance led to an overall improvement for the Corporation.

Period on period, weekly reach was pretty much stable, with each sector showing slight gains in audience figures. All Radio now reaches 42.7 million people a week on average – an increase of 0.4% on the previous period. BBC Local and Regional Radio both increased their weekly reach by 6.3%, even though their share of listening dropped. This is because the average listening time per listener to these stations has dropped, as can be seen in the table below.

The average hours per listener figures show that BBC Radio gets over an hour longer listener time each week, at 16.7 hours, than does All Commercial Radio, at 15.2 hours. National Commercial radio saw its average hours fall back by 3.9% from 7.7 to 7.4. BBC Network Radio is now holding listeners for longer, with average hours up from 14.5 to 15.2 per week.

Subscribers can access the Radio database by selecting “Radio” from the drop-down box at the top of this page.

For an explanation of the new RAJAR methodology and how and when the stations report, click RAJAR – The New Methodology Explained.