RAJAR Q3 2010: National Stations

BBC Radio 2 still has the highest number of national listeners despite a small drop in reach during Q3 2010.  BBC Radio 1 and Radio 4 have also retained their positions in second and third place in the national chart, although Global’s Heart Network divides the BBC’s lead, sitting in fourth place ahead of BBC Radio Five Live.

It was generally a very positive period for national stations and networks, with almost all increasing their reach.  There were also some stand-out performances from BBC 6 Music, Absolute Radio Classic Rock and Panjab Radio.

BBC 6 Music has firmly cemented its position after recording a resounding 91.7% year on year increase in its weekly reach. However, Panjab offered the biggest leap with a possible record-breaking 246.4% rise.

Absolute’s station changes also paid off with Absolute 80s almost doubling its reach during the quarter – up 95.8%.  Absolute Radio Classic Rock, meanwhile, posted a 69.3% increase.

talkSPORT enjoyed a very healthy gain too amid the tail-end of World Cup fever (and is now up to an all-time high of three million listeners), as did Total Kiss Network, Total Magic and Absolute Radio National.

Global has made several changes to its network so comparisons are not yet available but the Heart network clearly leads the commercial sector ahead of Bauer’s Kiss Network, which posted an increase of 14.2% year on year.

Global’s Gold network showed healthy year on year increases, as did Smooth Radio UK.

The losers this quarter include BBC’s Five Live Extra, which saw its reach dive 32.7%;  Global’s Chill and Bauer’s Heat.

In terms of national share, there was little change in Q3 2010.  As with weekly reach, BBC Radio 2, Radio 4 and Radio 1 dominate, with the Heart Network (UK) recording just under a 6% share.

However, there were some changes in listening habits across the country.  Unfortunately, very few stations and networks are able to boast an increase in the amount of time their listeners are tuning in compared with this time last year and last quarter – although BBC Radio 2, Total LBC and BBC Radio 6 Music all bucked the trend.

MediaTel has PowerPoint presentations available to download, featuring pre-prepared market breakdown graphs for the RAJAR data release – click here.