GfK Puts Heart Ahead Of Capital In The Breakfast Battle
Heart FM’s Jono Coleman has been crowned London’s breakfast king after knocking Capital FM’s new presenter Johnny Vaughan off the top spot in terms of listening, according to the latest unofficial figures from GfK.
The National Broadcast Survey, which electronically measures radio and television audiences, shows that Heart 106.2 has overtaken Capital 95.8 FM in terms of weekly reach with 2.6 million adult listeners, around 1,000 more than its closest rival.
The figures for the six-month period to 16 May show that both stations have increased their reach by more than 100,000 listeners. However, Heart has taken the lead with 8 million listening hours a week compared to just 7.5 million for Capital.
Capital and Heart recently raised the stakes in the battle for breakfast ratings with the former spending £1.8 million to promote the launch of the new Johnny Vaughan programme and the latter investing £1 million to boost the Jono and Harriet breakfast show (see Capital Pushes Vaughan With TV Ad Campaign).The latest figures from GfK show that in the four weeks before Vaughan’s arrival on April 19 Capital’s breakfast show averaged 380,000 listeners a day and Heart averaged just 198,000. However, Vaughan saw his audience increase by 34% in his first four weeks on air to 509,000, while Jono recorded an impressive 176% rise to 546,000 weekly listeners.
Recent research carried out by the MediaDNA consortium shows that former breakfast show host Chris Tarrant was perceived by consumers as the embodiment of Capital 95.8 FM after his eighteen year association with the brand. Vaughan was also found to be a close fit, but appealed more towards the station’s younger listeners (see MediaDNA Initiative Maps Celebrity Personalities).
GfK: 0870 603 8339 www.gfk.com
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