Commercial Radio Increases Share Of Listening

The BBC overall recorded a slight year on year and period on period decline in weekly reach across the UK in Q3, with local and regional BBC stations also seeing declines, according to Q3 2006 RAJAR figures.

The BBC’s overall share of listening also dropped both year on year and period on period, although taken as a whole it remained ahead of the commercial stations.

All commercial radio saw its share of listening increase in Q3, although its listeners tuned in for less time year on year. Its weekly reach stayed relatively static period on period. All Commercial radio now has a share of listening of 43.6% compared to the BBC’s 54.3%.

In terms of average hours per listener, all commercial radio recorded a year on year decrease, although it did enjoy a rise period on period, whilst the BBC taken as a whole performed in a similar fashion, with a decline year on year and period on period growth.

Share of Listening

Overall, the BBC’s share of listening decreased period on period by 0.4% points in Q3, down from 54.7% in Q2 and 0.3% points down on Q3 2005.

BBC Network Radio’s share of listening increased by 0.6% points year on year, whilst its local radio and local/regional arms both saw year on year decreases of 0.9% points.

All commercial radio recorded a year on year rise of 0.1% points and an impressive period on period rise of 0.7% points, taking all commercial’s share of listening to 43.6%.

Local commercial saw a period on period rise in listening share of 0.4%, which gives local commercial radio a commanding lead over the BBC’s local stations, which have a share of under 10%.

Weekly Reach

All BBC lost listeners in Q3, of 0.59% period on period, although the change to its total weekly reach was minimal, with a loss of around 200,000.

All commercial radio meanwhile, saw its weekly reach increase both year on year and period on period, by 0.6% and 0.5% respectively, to give it a weekly reach roughly 2 million listeners below that of the BBC.

BBC local/regional saw the largest period on period fall in listeners, with a 2.4% decrease to leave it with 9.7 milion listeners.

The overall increase in reach for all commercial stations was due to the good performance of the national commercial stations, which recorded a 3.9% rise in listeners period on period, and a year on year rise of 5.8%.

Other listening saw large year on year growth, of 10.8%, giving it a weekly reach of just over 3 million listeners.

Average Hours Per Listener

The BBC has the highest number of listening hours per week in the UK, with 17.7 hours per week across all stations. All commercial radio stations saw a period on period increase in average hours per listener, of 2.7%, taking the total to 15 hours.

Local commercial radio rose 2.2% period on period, giving it a total average hours per listener figure of 14 hours, while BBC local/regional radio had a total average figure of 10.7 hours.

Other listening dropped from an average of 8 hours in Q2, to 7.4 hours in the third quarter, suffering a year on year decrease of 1.3% in the process.

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