RAJAR Q1 2011: National Stations

Reach

Total Global Radio (UK) again heads up the nationals and networks with its reach – up 5.9% YoY.

Bauer’s Radio Total Portfolio placed second in the networks with both quarterly and yearly increases, with Kiss UK performing particularly well, enjoying a 19% increase in reach YoY. Total GMG also posted a sizeable YoY increase of 13%, with Smooth Radio UK achieving growth of 16.9% YoY.

BBC Radio 2 wears the crown of most listened to radio station yet again, followed by its stable mates Radio 1 and 4 – both of which saw QoQ and YoY increases, with Radio 4 growing its reach by a very decent 8% YoY. Classic FM also saw a healthy hike in its reach with a YoY increase of 10.4%, taking its listeners over the 6 million mark for the first time since 2007.

After its Sony Awards triumph of Monday, talkSPORT has further reason to celebrate as it saw its reach increase by a massive 37% YoY and 5% QoQ to give it its highest listening figures yet. Its owner, UTV Radio, also fared very well with its portfolio, including talkSPORT, reporting a 22.5% increase YoY.

Total Absolute Radio made a slight gain of 1.4% quarterly but showed a tiny loss yearly with Absolute Radio National losing 3.6% YoY. Its smaller stations fared better, reporting a massive YoY increase for Absolute 80s of 136%. Absolute Classic Rock also saw an improvement of 34% YoY.

BBC6 Music continues its steady growth, reporting a 26% increase YoY and 14% quarterly. BBC Radio 3 also saw a respectable  11% increase in reach, YoY.

Bauer’s digital stations performed strongly with Kerrang!, Heat, Q, Smash Hits and The Hits all enjoying yearly increases.

Average Hours

A number of stations have seen people listen for slightly less time each week with Total LBC UK and Heart Network (UK) losing 16% and 12% respectively over a YoY period. In only its third reporting period, Absolute 90s lost a sizeable 47% in the last quarter.

Winners include the Sunrise Group (up 17% YoY) in average hours, BBC 6 Music, Jazz FM, Absolute 80s and Kiss UK.

Share

BBC Radio 2 maintains its number one position here, followed very closely by Total Global Radio (UK) despite slight percentage point drops for both quarterly and yearly figures.

Since last quarter, Capital Network (UK) has made a small gain of 2.4 percentage points while Gold Network (UK) increased its share YoY with a decent 9 percentage point increase. Smooth Radio UK performed well over the yearly period, gaining 4.8% points.

Most other stations have maintained their shares with very little change YoY or QoQ.

MediaTel has PowerPoint presentations available to download, featuring pre-prepared market breakdown graphs for the RAJAR data release – click here.