RAJAR Follow-Up Report – Revenue At Selected National Commercial Radio Stations

Following yesterday’s release of RAJAR data for the three-month period ending June 2002, figures from Nielsen Media Research show that national speech-based sports radio station, TalkSPORT saw revenue increase by over £1 million period on period during the second quarter of this year, despite seeing its weekly reach decline by 1% during the same three-month period to 2,410,000.

Wireless-owned TalkSPORT, which secured a number of sponsors for its World Cup 2002 programming, generated £3,676,969 between April and June this year, up from £2,552,747 in the first quarter of 2002 and an increase of almost £100,000 on the same period last year (see below).

The figures also show that SMG’s Virgin AM saw revenue increase by over £900,000 period on period during the second quarter of 2002, despite managing only a modest 0.7% rise in weekly reach to 2,492,000 during the same three-month period. Year on year Virgin AM has seen its weekly reach decline by 11.5% to 2,492,000 down from 2,817,000 in the same period last year. Revenue has fallen by £74,327 over the same period, from 3,442,433 in the second quarter of 2001 to 3,368,106 in the second quarter of 2002 (see below).

Period on period Classic FM has seen both revenue and weekly reach decline. According to Nielsen Media Research, revenue at the station fell by £1,221,576 during the second quarter of 2002 to 8,834,889, down from 10,056,465 in the first quarter of this year. RAJAR data for the same three-month period shows that the station’s weekly reach has fallen by 2.3% period on period, down from 6,838,000 in Q1 2002 to 6,683,000 in Q2 2002.

Year on year Classic FM has seen revenue increase by almost £3 million, with weekly reach rising by 5.2% over the same twelve-month period (see below).

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