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Rajar Q4 2017: National stations and networks

Rajar Q4 2017: National stations and networks

As Rajar releases its fourth quarter results for the radio market, Mediatel presents the key findings showing station and network reach, share and average listening hours

Reach

Both Bauer and Global reported declines in weekly reach in the final quarter of 2017, while BBC stations posted largely positive results.

Global’s Capital Network was down -4.1% to a little over 7.4m, while Heart Network was down -5.1% to 8.2m. However, new station Heart 80s was up 7.4% to nearly 1.2m, and Classic FM up 4.4% to almost 5.7m.

For Bauer, the likes of Kisstory was down -6.0% to 1.7m, and Magic down -3.1% to 3.2m.

However, Bauer’s Absolute Radio Network was up 4.4% to 4.7m, and Kiss Fresh up 11.4% to 578,000.

Total Global Radio’s reach now amounts to more than 23m, and Bauer Radio – Total 17.8m.

Meanwhile, BBC Radio 2 was up 0.8% to 15.5m, and BBC Radio 1 up 1.5% to 9.8m.

Share

Share of listening does not tend to change much, and that is still true of Q4 2017.

The long-standing market leader, Total Global Radio, claims 19.9% of the market after a -0.7 percentage point change. The network was up 0.3pp year-on-year.

Meanwhile, BBC Radio 2, the second-place holder, was up 0.8 percentage points QoQ to 18.3%, while Bauer Radio (Total) was up just 0.1pp to claim a 14.9% share of the market.

Radio 4 (including 4 Extra) claims a 13% share of listening with no change on Q3.

The next largest shares belong to Heart Brand (UK) with a 6.3% share, and BBC Radio 1 with 5.9% (with no change for either on Q3)

Average listening hours

BBC Radio 2 continues to host the top spot for average listening hours – with its sister station, BBC Radio 4, falling slightly behind.

BBC Radio 2 clocks up an average 12.3 hours per listener (a 3.4% rise on Q2), while BBC Radio 4 secures 11.6 hours (a drop of -0.9%).

Meanwhile, LBC Network UK recorded an unusual tumble in the last quarter, dropping -7.3% (to a still very respectable) 10.1 hours.

Total Global Radio (UK), also saw its average listening time drop -2.2% to 8.9 hours.

Meanwhile, digital only-station BBC 6 Music was up a very healthy 7% to 9.2 hours (although this is down 8% over the year).

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TobyBeresford, CEO, rise.global, on 09 Feb 2018
“I think radio is about to encounter the major tech disruption that the other human media have had for the last 10 years or so from YouTube and Facebook.

I got a humble Echo dot for Christmas and it's astonishing how quickly it is supplanting the kitchen radio in our family. Of course we're still listening to the same stations but we've discovered on demand radio and binge listening (woman's hour back to back, elaine page on days other than Sunday, podcasts from the US are playing in the background while washing up is done). What Netflix has done to TV, Alexa will do to radio, I have no doubt. And yes, I've installed the Ask for a Fart app but the kids haven't discovered it yet. I can't wait till they do...

What will this disruption mean for radio producers, editors, and journalists content providers - it means the dreaded F word - Fragmentation. Smaller shows, smaller audiences, making it even harder to book revenue. Will existing market aggregators like anchor.fm and soundcloud be the youtubes of sound media? Or will a new player enter and distrupt their fledgling market? I think there's an O for opportunity there.
If I wasin radio media I'd either be investing in creating a platform competitor or focusing on a content strategy ready for a podcast explosion and Alexa skills by the bucket load right now - to not do so risks extinction.

Video didn't kill the radio, Alexa did.”

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