BBC Radio 2 Boosts Weekly Reach To Over 13 Million Listeners Nation-Wide

The latest RAJAR results for Q3 2007 show that BBC Radio 2 once again had the highest weekly reach of the national stations, of more than 13 million listeners, up more than 2% year on year.

Radio 4, however, was down by more than 2% year on year and quarter on quarter, taking its reach to just over 9.2 million.

On the classical spectrum, both BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM recorded year on year downturns in their reach, but period on period increases, leaving their weekly reach at more than 1.9 million and over 5.8 million listeners respectively.

Sports, news and current affairs station, BBC Radio Five Live, recorded a downturn of 4.5% from Q3 2006, and 6.8% from Q2 2007, taking its reach to just under 5.5 million listeners.

In the commercial chat and sport sphere, talkSPORT bolstered its weekly reach by 2% compared to the same quarter last year, despite a period on period fall of 2.5%, taking its reach to around 2.3 million.

Radio 1 remained fairly static year on year, and down nearly 3% quarter on quarter, at almost 10.6 million listeners.

Digital only music station, BBC6 Music, posted a strong year on year increase in its weekly reach, of over 20%, and 3% period on period, leaving it with a total of 485,000 listeners for the quarter.

Commercial indie pop station, Xfm, saw its national portfolio’s reach increase by more than 4% year on year, with Total Xfm (UK) now boasting a weekly reach of almost 1.2 million listeners. However, its reach was down by around 0.5% compared to Q2 2007.

GCap Gold Network UK’s weekly reach was down to 1.5 million listeners, a fall of 16.5% year on year. Parent company GCap announced earlier in the year that it was to merge eight AM and DAB digital Classic Gold radio stations with the seven AM and DAB digital Capital Gold stations to form the national Gold network (see GCap To Launch Gold Network).

Total Heart and Total Kiss Network both saw a rise in weekly reach of more than 7% year on year, taking their figures to over 3.3 million and almost 3.1 million respectively.

Meanwhile, Total Magic now reports a weekly reach of over 3.4 million listeners after a 13% upturn compared to Q3 2006, whilst Total Smooth FM, which merged stations and underwent a format change earlier this year (see Smooth FM Format Change Gets Ofcom Go-Ahead), leapt almost 51% year on year, taking its weekly reach to almost 2.2 million listeners.

Total Real Radio’s weekly reach increased to more than 1.6 million, up almost 2% year on year and over 2% period in period.

As well as bolstering its weekly reach, the nation’s most listened to station, BBC Radio 2, also saw an increase in its share of listening for Q3 2007.

The station now records a share of 15.8% following a rise of almost two percentage points year on year and 1.3 percentage points quarter on quarter.

Radio 4 saw a downturn in its share year on year, but remained static in comparison to last quarter at 11.2%.

Classical station BBC Radio 3 also saw its share fall, by 7.7 percentage points year on year, despite a period on period increase of nine percentage points taking its share to 1.2%. Its commercial rival, Classic FM, reported a Q3 boost of 7.5 percentage points quarter on quarter and 2.4 percentage points year on year, to take its share to 4.3%.

BBC Radio 1, which celebrated its 40th birthday this year, recorded a rise in its share both year on year and quarter on quarter, to take it to over 10.5%. Meanwhile, digital only music station, BBC 6Music, kept its share static year on year at 0.2%, although this slid by 33.3 percentage points compared to Q2 2007.

Total Xfm saw no change period on period but saw its share fall 12.5 percentage points year on year to 0.7%.

Of the main sports, news and current affairs stations, BBC Radio Five Live and talkSPORT both remained static, with a share of listening of 4.2% and 1.8% respectively.

GCap Gold Network boosted its share 18.2 percentage points compared to the previous quarter, despite remaining static year on year, with its share now standing at 1.3%, whilst Total Heart now boasts a share of 2.3% following a year on year drop of around 4.2 percentage points.

Total Kiss Network saw its share climb to 1.7% after a rise of 13.3 percentage points, compared to Q3 2006, and 6.2 percentage points compared to Q2 2007.

Meanwhile, Total Magic was up by 9.5 percentage points year on year, in spite of a 4.2 percentage point fall period on period, to leave it with a share of 2.3%.

Total Smooth FM increased its share by 125 percentage points year on year (but this fell by 10 percentage points period on period), taking its share to 1.8%.

Total Real Radio’s share of listening rose to 1.8% following a year on year and period on period climb of 5.8 percentage points.

With regards to average hours per listener, BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 4 both reported a figure of 12.3 hours on average, despite year on year and period on period declines.

Radio 1 on the other hand, bolstered its average hours per listener, up to 10.2 hours in Q3 2007 from 10 hours last quarter and 9.9 hours in Q3 2006.

BBC 6Music fans are now sticking with the station for an average of 5.2 hours, which signifies a year on year upturn of 10.6%, but a period on period decline of 17.5%.

Listeners are spending less time with Total Xfm, now spending an average of 5.9 hours tuned in compared to 6.2 hours last quarter and 7.2 hours in Q3 2006.

BBC Radio 3’s hours per listener remained the same as last period at 6.3 hours. However, this was a fall year on year of 8.7%. Commercial rival, Classic FM, keeps its listeners for an average of 7.5 hours. This was static year on year but indicates a period on period boost of 2.7%.

BBC Radio Five Live and talkSPORT both hold an average hours per listener figure of 7.8 hours. For Five Live, this was static year on year but up 2.6% quarter on quarter. For talkSPORT, this was down both year on year and period on period, by 6% and 3.7% respectively.

GCap Gold Network now reports an average hours per listener of 8.8 hours, up 11.4% year on year and period on period, whilst Total Smooth FM keeps its listeners for 8.5 hours. This indicates a year on year jump of 35%, but a period on period fall of 8.6%.

Meanwhile, Total Heart was down 10% year on year to 7.2 hours, whilst Total Magic fell more than 8% year on year and quarter on quarter to 6.8 hours, and Total Kiss Network was static year on year at 5.6 hours.

Total Real Radio’s average hours per listener remained static year on year at 11 hours, which was a period on period rise of just under 1%.

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