GfK Claims Listening Hits All Time Low At Radio One
Chris Moyles could be facing an uphill struggle as the self-styled saviour of BBC Radio One with the station recording its lowest weekly reach of 2003, according to the latest unofficial listening figures from GfK.
The National Broadcast Survey, which electronically measures radio and television audiences, shows that Radio One had a weekly reach of 11.8 million adults in the period from 15 September to 14 December, the lowest since the survey began publishing results in May.
Radio One had been steadily increasing its weekly reach throughout 2003 and saw listening hit the 13 million mark in the three months to mid-September. However, it has slipped from this peak month by month to hit rock bottom with the latest figure, which is 1.2 million below the high point of last year.
The survey suggests that Moyles, who started in the breakfast slot earlier this month, will have a hard time fulfilling his pledge to overtake Terry Wogan on BBC Radio Two. The GfK results show the station picked up 300,000 more listeners in a month to take its weekly reach to 15.3 million.
The other big success in the latest National Broadcast Survey was sports-based BBC Radio Five Live, which added 350,000 listeners since the previous month’s results to bring its weekly reach to just below the 9.5 million mark.
The figures, which are backed by Kelvin MacKenzie’s Wireless Group, also show that talkSPORT consolidated its lead as the UK’s most popular national commercial station. It now has more than a million listeners than Classic FM and more than three million that Virgin AM and FM.
The contentious Broadcast Survey caused a stir when it was first released last year and led to concerns that it could challenge the existing industry systems by offering advertisers a single port of call for television and radio audience measurement (see New Study To Shake-Up Audience Measurement?).
However, RAJAR recently announced a series of new developments and initiatives designed to maintain the integrity of the currency used to trade millions of pounds worth of radio advertising each year (see RAJAR Moves Into 2004 With Range Of New Developments).
GfK: 0870 603 8339 www.gfk.com
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