Rajar Q4 2017: Round-up

National Stations and Networks

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.

Read the full article.

Digital

More than 3 in 5 adults (aged 15+) currently listen to radio via a digital platform, according to the latest Rajar results for the fourth quarter of 2017.

In total, 34 million people now tune in to radio via a digitally enabled receiver – DAB, digital TV or online – each week.

In an average week, digital listening accounts for 518 million hours; DAB has a 73% share of digital listening hours, digital TV 10% and online 17%.

The growth in commercial digital listening was boosted by strong audience growth across a number of stations including Radio X, which increased reach by 26% year on year to 1.58 million listeners; Kisstory, which increased by 22.3% to 1.71 million listeners; Kiss Fresh with grew 17.5% to 578,000 listeners; and Virgin Radio which grew 46% to 483,000 listeners.

Digital listening to BBC stations grew to 48.3% from 45.5% in Q4 2016, with BBC Radio 4 exceeding 50% digital listening for the first time at 50.7% and a new record audience for its sister station, BBC Radio 4 Extra, reaching 2.26 million listeners.

Read the full article.

Breakfast

National

Radio 1’s 6.30am – 10am breakfast slot, which shed more than a tenth of listeners in the third quarter of 2017 and hit an an all time low, made something of a recovery in Q4.

The Nick Grimshaw-fronted show was up 16% quarter-on-quarter to more than 5.7m listeners, while over the year it was up 6.6%. A sigh of relief at the Beeb, no doubt.

Chris Evans’ BBC Radio 2 breakfast show continues to perform well and was up by 0.8% QoQ and 2.2% YoY, averaging a little over 9.4 million listeners each week.

However, one of the star performers of Q4 was Bauer’s Kiss, which was up 11% to almost 2.4m listeners. Global’s Classic FM, banging out plenty of festive treats, was also up a healthy 10.6% to 1.9m listeners.

Bauer’s Magic also performed well over the quarter, up 9.5%, however, with less sport to talk about, talkSPORT was down -15.7%.

London

The first three quarters of 2017 proved to be bumpy for the capital’s breakfast radio market, but things finally settled somewhat in the final quarter.

But first, the bad news: Global’s Capital London, which had been in the top spot, was down -9.3%, dipping to just over 1m listeners. However, the slot is up 14.8% year-on-year and it maintains a reasonable lead over Magic London to enjoy second place.

At the other end of the chart, Gold London was -12.4% to just 134,000 listeners.

For the rest of the market, it was all pretty good news.

Kiss is back in the top spot with more than a million listeners thanks to a PoP boost of 14%, while Heart London sky rocketed 38.8% to 680,000 listeners.

Magic London from Bauer also performed well, and was up 18.4%, while BBC radio London was up a healthy 15.7%.