Rajar Q3 2013: Round-up

National stations and networks

Total Global Radio UK has once again shown its dominance over the national stations and networks with another quarter showing growth in weekly reach.

The latest Rajar results for the third quarter of 2013 reveal the network was up 1.2% on the previous quarter and up 6.3% year on year, reaching more than 20.4 million listeners each week.

BBC Radio 2 held firmly on to its second place position with a little over 14.9 million weekly listeners, yet was down -3.3% on the second quarter, but up a healthy 7.4% on the same period last year.

Bauer Radio Total Portfolio continues to perform well, up 1.8% on Q2 and up 7% on last year. With a weekly reach of more than 14.3 million listeners, the network is up 259,000 on the last period.

After an improved performance for BBC Radio 1 in the second quarter, the station was down -1.8% (securing 10.8 million listeners). The decline was matched by a fall in listeners for its flagship breakfast show, hosted by Nick Grimshaw, which saw a -5.2% drop in listeners this quarter – the lowest figure recorded in almost two decades.

One of the biggest success stories in the latest results is BBC’s Five Live Sports Extra, which was up 60.7% on the previous quarter and up over 50% year on year. The station has gained an extra 575,000 listeners each week, potentially attributable to the Ashes coverage.

Sunrise Radio National also saw a substantial increase, up 30.8% QoQ and 38% YoY.

Good news for Kiss UK too, with the Bauer station seeing a 16.5% quarterly and yearly increase – taking its weekly reach to more than 5 million.

However, Total Absolute Radio, despite being up 6% on last year, took a hefty -17.4% knock this quarter, losing 346,000 listeners.

Total Absolute Radio Network also saw a decline in reach, down -10% on the past quarter (although up 15.1% year on year) to secure a little under 3.4 million listeners each week (a loss of 378,000 listeners).

Click here for the full breakdown.

Digital

The latest Rajar results for the third quarter of 2013 show that the share of all radio listening via a digital platform was up 14% year on year (YoY), now standing at 35.6%.

90% of the UK adult population (15+) tune in to radio every week – up by approximately 1 million on the same quarter last year – and listen to an average of 21.5 hours of radio.

51% of adults tune into digital radio every week, up 13% YoY, though down slightly on the last quarter. This equates to 27 million people now tuning in to radio via a digitally enabled receiver each week – up almost 3 million YoY.

Digital listening hours for Q3 2013 increased 14% to 366 million hours, up from 320 million hours on the same period last year.

Click here for the full breakdown.

London

Global Radio continues to lead the London market with Capital London recording a yearly growth figure of 8.6% (yet down -0.8% on the last quarter). The London station has 2.17 million weekly listeners.

Maintaining its position in second place, Kiss 100 FM was down -1.9% on the previous quarter, but up 1.1% over the year to bag 1.97 million listeners each week.

Heart London, which took third place in the second quarter results, moves down into fourth, replaced by Magic 105.4 which saw a quarterly increase in listeners of 4.9% (securing 1.96 million listeners each week).

Heart London, also owned by Global Radio, was down 9.5% on the last period (and -4.6% year on year). The station has lost 183,000 listeners since the second quarter.

The worst hit stations for the period belong to Absolute Radio. Total Absolute Radio (London) was down -30.8% on the previous quarter losing 308,000 listeners, whilst Absolute Radio London was down -26%, losing 183,000 weekly listeners.

Better news for XFM London, however, which was up 17.7% on the second quarter and 37.9% year on year. The station now has 513,000 weekly listeners – up 77,000 since the last period.

Breakfast

National

All national stations saw quarter on quarter (QoQ) decreases, except for Bauer’s Kiss UK (up 6.7%), which could be a result of the summer holiday period – a similar trend recorded last year.

BBC 1’s Breakfast Show, hosted by Nick Grimshaw, was down -5.2% QoQ to 5.6 million listeners – the lowest figure recorded in almost two decades. The station took a year on year (YoY) hit of -17%.

Grimshaw’s youth orientated show had seen a small reversal in fortunes in the second quarter with a small increase of 1.8% over Q1, but year-on-year declines are showing no sign of slowing down.

Even Chris Evans’ popular breakfast slot on Radio 2 saw a decline over the quarter (-4.2%), though continued to lead the ranks with a total weekly reach of over 9.3 million. Despite the quarterly decline, the station was up 9% year on year.

BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio FIVE LIVE and BBC Radio 3 were down -2.3%, -6.1% and -13.3% QoQ, respectively.

Despite the addition of Johnny Vaughan in August, TalkSPORT was slightly down on the last quarter, recording a decrease in weekly reach of -0.2%.

Q3 delivered bad news for Global’s Classic FM and Absolute’s Total Absolute Radio Network too, down -10.2% and -13.1% QoQ, respectively.

London

Global continues to lead the London breakfast show slots, despite Capital London taking a -2.3% QoQ hit.

There was bad news for the group elsewhere, however, with Heart London and Choice FM London both seeing significant declines in weekly reach across the quarter, -26.7% and -26.9%, respectively.

Global’s XFM London, however, recorded a healthy 22% increase across the quarter – the highest of all the breakfast show slots except for Buzz Asia, which was up 28.6% after changing its hours to 06.00-09.00.

In terms of yearly increases, Global won out with four of its stations seeing significant growth in weekly reach.

Bauer’s Kiss FM was down -21.6% QoQ, however still managed to maintain its comfortable second place, while Magic 105.4 was down -5.7%, falling just behind Heart.