The share of listening held by BBC radio stations made gains in the last quarter, while commercial radio listening was down, according to the latest RAJAR figures released this morning. Overall, BBC stations improved their share by 0.3% points since June, to a total share of 51.4%, while commercial stations fell back 0.5% points to 46.7%.
BBC Local and Local/Regional both slipped back however, losing 0.1% points each from their share of listening. Of commercial stations, national commercial took the greatest tumble, falling 0.3% points to take an 8% share of listening.
In a year on year analysis there was a similar picture, with All BBC up 1.5% points for the yearly period to the end of September, while All Commercial fell back 1.1% points.
Period on period weekly reach fell slightly across all commercial categories, with All Commercial stations seeing the greatest fall, down 1.2%. All BBC made gains however, and now has a weekly reach just slightly higher than that of commercial, at 31,168.
All radio now reaches 43.4m people a week on average – a 0.6% decrease compared to the previous period.
A year on year analysis of weekly reach paints a more positive picture for commercial, however, with gains across all categories. Local commercial stations made significant increases, up 2%. BBC also increased its weekly reach by 2% in a yearly analysis, while Other Listening was up by a massive 12.8%.
The average hours per listener for all radio increased by 3.9% in a year on year analysis. BBC was up 6.8% overall, with BBC Network stations showing the greatest increases amongst all radio, up 7.6%. Commercial radio made gains overall, up 1.9%, but national commercial fell by 2.6% over the period.
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