Q4 RAJAR Summary – Commercial Radio Grows At BBC’s Expense

RAJAR Q4 figures, just released, reveal that overall radio weekly reach has increased very slightly from 40.197 million in Q4 1996 to 40.228 million in Q4 1997. Average hours per listener increased from 20.2 to 20.6, while total hours grew from 813 million to 827 million.

Meanwhile, commercial radio continued its growth while the BBC saw many of its stations experience a fall in listeners. While All BBC’s share of weekly reach fell from 57% in Q4 1996 to 56% in Q4 1997, All Commercial’s share grew from 59% to 60%.

Radio 1 suffered a 3% point fall in weekly reach to 20% while Virgin Radio AM’s share increased from 6% to 7%. The other national commercial stations either managed to hold on to their share or suffered a slight loss. Among the BBC’s other stations, only Radio 5 Live managed a year on year increase in share of weekly reach while the others mostly held on to last year’s share.

In terms of audience listening shares, All BBC’s share dropped from 49.6% in Q4 1996 to 47.9% in Q4 1997, while All Commercial increased from 48.3% to 49.5%.

Q4 1997 RAJAR data will be available shortly in the Radio database, along with more detailed reports on Newsline.