All Commercial Radio Suffers YoY Dip In Weekly Reach

The latest RAJAR figures, for the second quarter of 2008, show that All Commercial radio suffered a year on year dip in weekly reach of around 3.2%, although it remained relatively static period on period.

All BBC was up slightly year on year in terms of reach, by 0.2%, while period on period it recorded a fall of 2.6%.

All Commercial’s average hour per listener figure grew by almost 1.5% period on period, while its share of listening was up by 3.2% over the same time frame.

Share of Listening

All Commercial radio saw its share of listening grow by almost 3.2% period on period, although it was down year on year, by 2.5%. Its share now stands at around 42.5% of all radio listening in the UK.

All National Commercial Radio remained static year on year but enjoyed a very healthy period on period boost, of 4.7%, taking its total share to over 11%.

Locally, All Local Commercial radio had a total share of listening of just over 31% following a period on period rise of just under 3%. However, it was down year on year by almost 3.5%.

There was a year on year rise in share of listening for All BBC, up by more than 2%, although it was down period on period by around the same figure, leaving its total at 55.5%.

Q2 saw All BBC Network radio grow its share of listening by almost 3.4% year on year, giving it a total of 46%.

Weekly Reach

Within the commercial sector, All Commercial radio suffered a year on year downturn in its weekly reach, of around 3.2%.

All Commercial radio now has a total reach of just under 31 million listeners each week.

Both All Local Commercial and All National Commercial were down year on year, by around 3% and 2.5% respectively, although All Local Commercial enjoyed a period on period boost of around 0.6%.

All BBC’s reach was up by around 0.2% year on year, although it was down on last period, by 2.6%. Its total now stands at over 33.3 million listeners.

All Local Commercial now has a total weekly reach of just under 25 million listeners, while All National Commercial’s stands at almost 13.8 million.

There was a large period on period decline for BBC/Local Regional, shedding nearly 7.7% of its listeners, to leave its total weekly reach at 9.5 million.

Average Hours Per Listener

All BBC was down both year on year and period on period, by 2.3% and 1.7% respectively, leaving it with a 17 hour average.

While All Commercial radio saw its average hours per listener fall around 3.5% year on year, it showed a period on period rise of almost 1.5%, giving it a 13.9 hour average.

It was a similar story for All Local Commercial, which dipped 3.8% year on year but was up period on period by 0.8%, to take its average hours to around 12.5 per listener.

BBC Local Regional was also up period on period, by 3%, taking its average hours to just over 10 per listener.

After dropping below eight hours in the first quarter of 2008, All National Commercial enjoyed a rise of 5% in Q2 to take its average hours per listener figure to almost 8.5.

Other listening, meanwhile, suffered a large year on year fall, of around 9%, leaving it with an average of seven hours per listener.

New RAJAR specification introduced in Q2 2007. Please use caution.

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