Rajar Figures Show Another Tough Quarter For Commercial Stations
Once again this was a bad quarter for national commercial radio, which saw a decline in reach across all its stations. Like the previous quarter, worst hit were Atlantic 252, which dropped 21.2% and Virgin AM, which fell 34.3% in a year on year comparison.
The BBC stations did not do very much better, with Radio 3’s 10.4% reduction taking it below the 2m listener mark, its worst ever audience figure, and Radio 1 also dropping nearly 9%. It was left to Radio 2 to carry the flag once more, managing a 2.6% year on year increase to achieve an average audience of 10.8m, while Radio 4 added 0.8% to its weekly reach.
In terms of share, the two more successful BBC stations, Radio 2 and Radio 4, which rose 0.8 and 0.4 percentage points respectively, balanced the losses of the less successful Radio 1 and Radio 3, which lost 0.8 and 0.3 percentage points.
Radio 5 Live saw its share decrease 0.1 percentage point this quarter, while its main commercial rival, talkSport, had a successful quarter in this respect. Despite losing 5.5% in reach, it increased its share year on year by 0.3 percentage points. Elsewhere among the commercial stations, the worst performer was Virgin, which dropped 0.5 percentage points in a year on year comparison.
| National Stations Weekly Reach (000s) | ||||
| Station | Reporting Period | Mar-00 | Mar-01 | % Change |
| BBC Radio 1 | (Q) | 11,316 | 10,336 | -8.7 |
| BBC Radio 2 | (Q) | 10,593 | 10,870 | 2.6 |
| BBC Radio 3 | (Q) | 2,143 | 1,920 | -10.4 |
| BBC Radio 4 | (Q) | 9,057 | 9,127 | 0.8 |
| BBC Radio 5 | (Q) | 6,185 | 5,680 | -8.2 |
| Classic FM | (Q) | 6,259 | 6,055 | -3.3 |
| talkSPORT | (Q) | 2,378 | 2,248 | -5.5 |
| The New Atlantic 252 | (Q) | 1,670 | 1,097 | -34.3 |
| Virgin Radio AM (UK) | (Q) | 3,311 | 2,609 | -21.2 |
| National Stations Share Of Listening (%) | ||||
| Station | Reporting Period | Mar-00 | Mar-01 | % Point Change |
| BBC Radio 1 | (Q) | 9.9 | 9.1 | -0.8 |
| BBC Radio 2 | (Q) | 13.3 | 14.1 | 0.8 |
| BBC Radio 3 | (Q) | 1.4 | 1.1 | -0.3 |
| BBC Radio 4 | (Q) | 10.9 | 11.3 | 0.4 |
| BBC Radio 5 | (Q) | 4.4 | 4.3 | -0.1 |
| Classic FM | (Q) | 4.4 | 4.4 | 0.0 |
| talkSPORT | (Q) | 1.4 | 1.7 | 0.3 |
| The New Atlantic 252 | (Q) | 0.7 | 0.5 | -0.2 |
| Virgin Radio AM (UK) | (Q) | 2 | 1.5 | -0.5 |
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