Digital Radio Audiences Continue To Grow

The latest RAJAR figures for Q2 2006 show the BBC still well ahead of its commercial rivals, while digital stations continue to perform well as more listeners switch to DAB radios.

BBC Radio 1 recorded a 1.77% year on year increase to take its weekly reach to 10.4 million, while its period on period figure was up 7.08%.

Although only recording a relatively small year on year increase of 0.13%, Radio 2 stayed comfortably ahead of all other stations with a weekly reach of 13.3 million.

The BBC’s digital stations, in keeping with the trend for digital stations as a whole, recorded handsome rises, as BBC 6 Music and BBC 7 saw year on year increases of 23.78% and 41.53% respectively. BBC 6 Music ended June with 354,000 listeners while spoken word station BBC 7 finished the quarter with 668,000.

Of the commercial digital stations, Mojo Radio saw a healthy increase of 71.19% year on year, with a period on period increase of over a quarter, to see its weekly reach rise to over 200,000, while Heat also recorded a year on year rise, of 30.43%, to see it reach 300,000 listeners via digital.

The Hits managed to break the million mark in June with a weekly reach of 1.1 million after recording a period on period increase of 13.61%.

Despite the excitement of the World Cup, which began in June, TalkSPORT only showed a small year on year rise of 0.36%, although its period on period figure, of 7.20% was more encouraging, and the national speech station finished June with a weekly reach of 2.2 million.

Meanwhile Xfm, bastion of alternative music, saw a year on year increase of nearly 70% to take its weekly reach to over one million, although its period on period change was a comparatively small increase of 0.66%.

BBC Radio 1, as in Q1 2006, recorded the largest increase to its share of listening, adding 1.10% points year on year to give it a 10.3% market share.

BBC Radio 2, despite easily maintaining its position as the most popular national station with a 15.7% share, saw the second biggest points downturn of any national station year on year, dropping 0.30% points. However, the biggest downturn was felt by Radio 4, whose share of listening dropped by 0.50% points year on year and 1.00% period on period, to leave it with a still impressive 10.7% share of the market.

Of the national commercial stations, Magic managed to put on a very respectable 0.30% points year on year to give it a market share of 2.3% at the end of June, while Xfm performed even better than that, adding 0.40% points year on year, ending the quarter with a 0.8% share of listening.

Classic FM retained its position as the largest commercial station in terms of listening with 4.2% share, even though it saw its year on year point change decrease by 0.10%.

The largest increases in average hours of listening came for digital stations with Q, the music magazine spin-off, seeing an increase of 90.91% year on year, and 40% in the three months to June, commanding 4.2 hours per listener each week.

Core also recorded a big increase in average hours per listener; the digital station recorded an increase of 84% year on year to total 4.6 hours on average.

The biggest gains for BBC stations were also for its digital channels, with BBC 6 Music (14.55%), BBC 7 (23.91%) and BBC Asian Network (62.75%) all recording year on year increases.

However, for the BBC’s non-digital stations, Radio 1 was the only channel to see a gain, with a 7.29% increase year on year taking it to 10.3 hours per listener each week.

The largest decrease in average hours per listener was for Virgin Radio Groove with 56.64% year on year, to give it an average of 4.9 hours per week.

RAJAR: 020 7292 9040 www.rajar.co.uk