Year on Year Rise In Reach For Radio 2

The latest RAJAR figures, for the third quarter of 2008, show that BBC Radio 2 once again had the highest weekly reach of all the national stations, at 13 million listeners, with a year on year rise of 0.4%.

BBC Radio 1 was just behind, with an average of around 10.9 million listeners per week, up by 2.8% year on year.

In August, Radio 1 announced a number of line-up changes to its schedule, with Sara Cox and Edith Bowman returning and Dick and Dom leaving (see Radio 1 Shakes Up Its Schedule).

BBC Radio 4, up 2% year on year but down by around 1% period on period, now has a weekly reach of 9.5 million listeners.

Commercial chat and sport station talkSPORT remained static year on year, with an average of 2.3 million listeners per week.

There was a healthy year on year increase in reach for Smooth Radio, up by around 27.5% to almost 2.8 million.

Heart Network (UK) and Galaxy Network (UK) have both seen large gains in reach due in part to the recent takeover of GCap by Global Radio (see Global Radio To Acquire GCap For £375m).

Heart Network saw its reach rise 106.4% year on year, giving it an average of around 6.9 million listeners per week, while Galaxy Network was up 41% year on year, taking its reach to 3.7 million listeners per week.

Gold Network (UK), meanwhile, suffered a year on year fall of 35%, although it was up period on period by 3.2%. It now has a weekly reach of around 970,000.

Total Global Radio (UK) now has a total share of listening of 16.7%.

Although starting from a relatively low base, Heat was up both year on year and period on period, by around 11% and 6% respectively, taking its weekly reach to just over 450,000.

It was a similar story with Planet Rock, up 15.5% year on year and 8.2% period on period, giving it a weekly reach of over 633,000 listeners.

Mojo Radio enjoyed a year on year upturn of around 18.5% but saw it fall period on period by 21.3%. It now has an average of around 260,000 listeners per week.

Bauer’s Total Magic posted a year on year downturn of 2.2%, leaving its reach at 3.4 million.

There was a 3.3% year on year boost in for Total Kiss Network, taking its weekly reach to 3.2 million.

Total Virgin Radio has a weekly reach of 2.5 million listeners following a 2.2% period on period fall.

Virgin Radio relaunched as Absolute Radio on September 29 after its buyout by The Times of India group and Absolute’s chief executive Donnach O’Driscoll has given the station a target of three million listeners (see Absolute Radio Targets 3m Listeners).

The third quarter saw a relatively large year on year drop in share of listening for BBC Radio 1, of 0.8 percentage points. Its share now stands at 9.8%.

BBC Radio 2 remained relatively static year on year, with a 16% share of listening.

Within the commercial sector, Total Smooth Radio’s share grew 0.6 percentage points year on year, to 2.4%.

Smooth Radio relaunched this month as Jazz FM after it secured a three year license deal with the Guardian Media Group (see Jazz FM Set To Relaunch In October).

In a similar trend to reach, Heart Network and Galaxy Network both saw large gains in share of listening following the recent takeover of GCap by Global Radio.

Heart Network (UK) was up by 3.1 percentage points both year on year and period on period, to 5.4%, while Galaxy Network (UK) saw a more modest increase of 0.7 percentage points over both periods.

Galaxy Network now has a total share of listening of 2.5%.

Global’s Classic FM was down 0.5 percentage points year on year, leaving its share at 3.8%.

Total Kiss Network remained relatively static both year on year and period on period, meaning that its share of listening for Q3 rests at 1.8%.

With a share of listening of 2.3%, Total Magic also remained static.

There was a year on year dip of 0.3 percentage points for Total XFM (UK), although like several other stations, its period on period percentage point change was negligible. It now has a 0.4% share of listening.

There was a large year on year decline in average hours per listener for BBC Radio 1, of 10.8%, leaving its average hours at 9.1. It was also down period on period, by 4.2%.

Following a year on year fall of 0.8% and a period on period one of 4.7%, BBC Radio 4’s average hours per listener figure now stands at 12.2.

BBC Radio 2’s average hour figure is 12.3, following a period on period dip of 1.6%.

Classic FM fell 8% year on year and 4.2% period on period, to leave its average hours figure at 6.9.

talkSPORT’s average hours per listener figure was up 1.3% on Q2 and 3.8% on Q3 2007, giving it a total of 8.1 hours.

With a 20.5% year on year increase, Chill boosted its average hours to 5.3%. However, the flip-side to that was a period on period fall of 14.5%.

There was a massive 62.1% year on year increase for Mojo Radio, backed up by a similarly healthy 34.3% period on period rise. Its listeners are now tuned in for an average 4.7 hours per listener.

Also on the up was Planet Rock, with a 7.9 hour average following year on year and period on period rises of 11.3% and 14.5% respectively.

Gold Network (UK), with growth of 6.8% year on year and 13.3% period on period, now has an average figure of 9.4 hours per listener.

Listeners are now tuning in to Heart Network (UK) for an average of eight hours, following year on year and period on period increases of 11.1% and 17.6% respectively.

At 10.9 hours, Global Radio’s Total LBC (UK) is not far behind the BBC stations in terms of average hours. However, it did suffer slight dips of 2.7% period on period and 4.4% year on year.

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