RAJAR Q4 has now been released!

RAJAR’s final quarterly update of 2023 is here, check out the top stats for the period (October – December 2023)

Data has revealed that the weekly population of all radio listeners has remained consistent throughout each quarter of 2023 with 88%, remaining at 49.5 million people.

Here are some interesting stats –

  • The total average number of weekly hours listened to radio for this Quarter is 1.013 billion hours.
  • On average a listener tunes into 20.5 hours of live radio each week, unchanged from Q3.
  • In terms of reach, 43 million adults aged 15+ are now tuning in to radio via a digitally enabled platform.
  • In an average week, digital listening accounts for 729 million hours; DAB has a 59% share of digital listening hours, DTV 5%, Website/Apps 15%, Smart Speaker 20%.
  • AM/FM listening hours have a share of 28%.
  • 31% of Adults 15+ claim to listen to Live Radio via a Smartphone or Tablet at least once per month.
  • 63% of Adults say they would prefer to listen to the radio at home and 58% whilst traveling.

National radio stats –

The latest RAJAR Q4 results reported that Commercial radio gained an additional one million weekly listeners.

7.8 million more people listen to commercial radio than the BBC; this difference has increased by 4.8 million during the same quarter last year.

When comparing this quarter to the same quarter last year, there were 38.1 million more individuals listening to commercial radio, setting a new Q4 high of 39.1 million listeners weekly.

Breaking its own record, Heart Radio strengthens its position as the number one commercial radio brand, growing to a huge 11.5 million listeners across the UK, increasing reach, hours and share year on year.

Capital in Q4 achieved 7.9 million weekly listeners, unfortunately down by 100,000 listeners since Q3.

Bauer Media and partner stations celebrated this quarterly report with 23 million weekly listeners, showing an 8% growth YoY.

Welsh radio stats –

Heart South Wales has remained the most listened to radio station throughout the whole of Wales, in comparison to Q3 the reach of listeners has fallen by 13,000, dropping to 419,000.

Heart SW has strong average listening hours at 9.1 per week

Nation Radio Wales increased its reach during Q4, gaining a considerable 35,000 listeners making the total to 185,000 listeners.

Following suit, Capital South Wales reached 160,000 listeners gaining 23,000 more listeners.

Greatest Hits South Wales’ (previously The Wave) weekly listeners has further increased in Q4 by 18,000, reaching a total of 120,000.

Heart North Wales gained listeners, now at 102,000 per week up 14%.

Smooth North Wales and West retains the highest listening hours of 9.5 hours per listener per week.

Kiss (West) had the biggest decrease in reach throughout the whole of Wales, dropping 34,000 listeners but still having a considerable share of 275,000 listeners.

Although radio listeners switch stations, they still regularly tune in to the medium highlighting that radio is a key media option for getting across your message/ attracting new customers.

With over 40 years of commercial radio experience, contact our radio experts today to help with with your next campaign!

[email protected]

RAJAR Q3 results are now in!

Here are the top stats from Q3 for the period starting June and ending September.

Data has revealed that the weekly population of all radio listeners has remained the same as Q1 and Q2 in Q3 with 88% and has remained at 49.5 million people.

Here are some interesting stats to begin –

  • The average number of weekly hours listened to radio for this Quarter is 1.016 billion hours
  • The average radio listener tunes into 20.5 hours of Live Radio per week.
  • 43 million adults (15+) are tuning into radio digitally each week.
  • In an average week, digital listening accounts for 714 million hours, with a listening share of 76%, up by 2% since Q2.
  • Listening via DAB has a 42% share of listening, Online has 24% and DTV is 4%.
  • AM/FM listening hours share is less than a third with 30%.
  • 32% of adults (15+) claim to listen to Podcasts at least once per month.

National RAJAR listening figures

They’ve done it again! Heart and Capital remain the largest 2 commercial radio brands, resulting in Global leading the radio market with 26.4 million weekly listeners, up by 6% since Q2.

In this quarter, The UK’s largest radio station Heart, achieved its highest-ever audience of 11.3 million weekly listeners across the UK.

Capital has reached a milestone of 8 million weekly listeners, increasing by an incredible 200,000 listeners since Q2.

Following a successful Q1 and Q2, Bauer’s Greatest Hits Radio has grown again in Q3, achieving 6.2 million weekly listeners.

Welsh RAJAR listening figures

Heart South Wales now has 432,000 weekly listeners, up 29,000 from Q2, making it the station with the most listeners in all of Wales.

Nation Radio Wales reached 150,000 weekly listeners an increase of 20,000 since Q2.

Greatest Hits South Wales’ weekly listeners increased by 20,000 from Q2 to Q3, reaching a total of 102,000

Even though Capital is still the biggest commercial radio station in the UK, Capital Northwest, and Wales’ reach decreased by 14,000 listeners from Q2 to Q3, yet it is still quite high at 107,000 listeners per week. Capital South Wales’ reach also decreased slightly by 6,000 listeners per week.

Although radio listeners have switched stations, they still regularly tune in to the medium highlighting that there is still a market for radio advertising! Millions of people can still hear your message; to be heard at the right time, get in touch with our team today!

[email protected]

RAJAR Q2 stats have been revealed!

Here are the top stats from Q2 for the period ending June 2023 of Rajar’s update. 

Data has revealed that the weekly population of all radio listeners has remained the same as Q1 in Q2 with 88% but has increased slightly to 49.5 million people. 

Some other interesting stats – 

  • A record 39.2 million people are tuning into commercial radio every week, up by 1.3% on the quarter and 8% on the year. 
  • Commercial Radio’s share of listening has also grown massively to a new record of 54.5%, up from 51.4% in Q1
  • The average user tunes into 20.5 hours of live radio each week. 
  • In an average week, digital listening accounts for 697 million hours, and has the highest percentage of listeners with 74%. 
  • At home listening has the biggest percentage with 62%, followed by transport with 25% and in the workplace with 14%. 

Nationally 

Commercial radio now has 7.5 million more listeners than the BBC. 

They’ve done it again! Heart, Capital and Smooth remain the top 3 UK commercial radio brands, resulting in Global leading the radio market with 24.9 million weekly listeners. 

Heart reaches more than 11.1 million listeners each week, increasing listening hours by 3%.

Capital reaches 7.8 million listeners each week – 14% of the UK population. 

Smooth reaching 5.9 million listeners each week, reporting a 4.8% increase from Q1.  

Following a successful Q1, Bauer’s Greatest Hits Radio has grown by a further 12% in reach, equivalent to 5.9 million listeners each week and a total of 21.3 million listeners. 


Locally 

Across Wales North Wales appeared to have the most success this RAJAR

Reach has increased for Capital North Wales from 100,000 to 121,000 a staggering 21% in Q2.

Following this trend, Heart North Wales reach has also increased from 89,000 up by 14%. Its total listener hours is up by a staggering 40% from 606,000 to 846,000, whilst share of listening is up from 2.9% to 4.1%.

Other each increases include:

Greatest Hits South Wales: 72,000 to 77,000

Radio Carmarthenshire: 18,000 to 20,000 

Several Welsh stations have seen a significant fall in their reach from Q1 to Q2, these include:

  • Smooth Radio South Wales: 76,000 to 70,000, fell by 9%
  • Capital South Wales: 154,000 to 143,000, fell by 8%
  • Heart South Wales: 426,000 to 403,000, fell by 5%

Although radio listeners have switched stations, they still regularly tune in to the medium highlighting that there is still a market for radio advertising! Millions of people can still hear your message; to be heard at the right time, get in touch with our team today!

[email protected]

Q1 2023 Rajar Figures are announced

Here are a few top line stats from 2023’s first Rajar.

Overall 88% of the adult population listens to the radio weekly – 49.4 million people.

Digital listening is 68% – 39% DAB and 24.4% online.

Nationally

BBC local radio network is down 7% from 5.6m to 5.2 weekly reach.

BBC Radio London drops from 625,000 weekly reach to 564,000 weekly reach – down 10%.

Commercial radio has come up trumps, with 38.7m listeners tuning in weekly.  Global – 26.7m, Bauer 22.4m reach and News Broadcasting 6.7m reach.

Listening using online platforms has increased to 28%.

Global’s Heart, Capital and Smooth are the top 3 stations in the UK.

Bauer’s digital listening is bigger than the industry average at 77.7% compared with 67.7%              

Locally

A number of stations including Greatest Hits Wales, Capital North Wales, Nation & Heart South Wales have all seen a fall in their reach since the last quarter of 2022.

Greatest Hits Wales 86,000 to 72,000

Capital South Wales 175,000 to 154,000

Heart North Wales 114,000 to 76,000

Heart South Wales 439,000 to 426,000

Nation Radio 173,000 to 162,000

Radio Pembrokeshire & Radio Carmarthenshire retained their listener reach of 19,000 and 18,000 with high average hours per listeners of over 9 and 10 hours each.

Weekly listener hours are down slightly across other local station too with Heart South Wales retaining just about the same amount of hours (7.6) average hours per listener.

Contact us via [email protected]

Rajar Q4 2022

Commercial radio continues its success of Q3 2022 by maintaining it’s reach and share,  maintaining 38.1 million adults weekly audience (68% of 15+ adults).

Overall, radio stays at 49.7 million listeners, 89% of the adult population (15+ adults) 1.01 billion weekly listener hours are recorded for Q4 .

The share of listeners of commercial radio has increased from 48.4% in Q1 2022 to 50.2% in Q4 2022.

An average of 20.3 hours of live radio is listened to every week with 41 million adults tuning into radio via a digitally enabled platform each week.

31% listened to radio over a smart phone or tablet at least once a month. (Source Radioworks)

On-line listening is up by 18.7% in one year.

63% of radio audiences listen at home whilst 23% listen on the road (in cars etc) and 14% in work environments.

Summing up National market

Radio 2 has lost listeners, dropping from 14,462,000 to 14,287,000 a loss of 175,000 listeners since Q3. This has perhaps been attributed to the loss of established Radio 2 DJ’s such as Steve Wright in the afternoon and the change of music being played (less 60’s & 70’s)

Capital Network has increased their reach by 194,000 and has 5.1 listening hours weekly on average.

Heart Network has also successfully increased their listeners by 711,000 and increased reach by 1% Global stations reach 26.3 million weekly listeners with heart, Capital and Smooth being the top three commercial brands in the UK.

Summing up local market

Nation Wales had an excellent RAJAR this quarter. They gained 23,000 listeners up 15% to 173,000 weekly listeners. They also had the highest gain in listening hours, now 7.9 per week, up 88% on last quarter. In addition their Radio Carmarthenshire , Radio Pembrokeshire and Dragon radio have remained almost the same reach as Q3 with 18,000, 19,000 and 57,000 respectively.

The Wave was the next station to receive the highest % in reach, up 6% to 99,000 listeners per week

Although Heart South Wales had a small loss of listeners, down 2.4% they still reach a healthy 439,000 listeners per week.  Listening hours were down slightly to 7.6 hours a week.

Heart North Wales has retained its percentage reach but has lost 19.6% of it’s weekly listening hours per person

Capital South Wales hasn’t had a good rajar with a drop in reach from 196,000 last quarter to 175,000 ( down 21%) and listening share drop to 2.9.

Capital North Wales also lost some listeners from last quarters down to 95,000, but only a 5% drop.

Smooth South Wales lost 12.5% of it’s audience, now at 91,000 weekly listeners (104,000 Sep 22)

Bauer media group have accrued 179,000 weekly listeners

Bridge FM has the highest listening hours at 11.3 hours and Radio Pembrokeshire

(Sources, Global, Bauer & Rajar)

It’s Rajar Q3 2022!!

Good news for digital Radio

41 million adults aged 15+ are now tuning in to radio via a digitally enabled platform (DAB, DTV, Online, App, Smart Speaker) each week. 66% of the population claim to own or have access to a DAB radio. 74% of the population tune in to digital radio every week. 66% of weekly listening hours are consumed digitally. Listening via a DAB has 39% share of listening, Online has a 24% share and DTV is 4%.

A General overview

  • 88.8% of the adult UK population that’s 49.7 million adults tuned in to radio in Q3
  • Radio weekly hours are up at 1.02 billion from 998 million in Q2
  • Live radio average listening hours 20.6 hours per week
  • Commercial radio reached 5.2m listeners more than BBC radio
  • 41 million adults are reached via a digitally enabled platform weekly

National Commercial Stations

  • Global has 24.4% share with 246m hours with 25.4m listeners a week.
  • Heart is the UK’s biggest commercial radio brand with over 10m listeners. It’s the most listened to commercial station in London with 1.8m weekly reach.
  • Capital has the second largest reach after Heart with a weekly reach of 7.4 m, down 3.5% year on year across the UK,
  • Smooth Radio remains the UK’s third largest commercial radio station, with 5.6 million weekly listeners, up 123,000 listeners .
  • Radio X has increased its listeners by 70,000 now nearly 2m weekly listeners.
  • Virgin Radio has lost 7% of its listeners with Chris Evans Breakfast listeners also decreasing from 869,000 listeners to 776,000
  • KISS has grown to 2.7m listeners, up 7.2% yearly as has Magic to 2.8m

Local Commercial Stations

  • Heart South Wales’s reach is 450,000 up from Q2’s 396,000 with an average of 8 hrs per listener.
  • Radio Pembrokeshire’s weekly Reach has dropped from 23,000 to 20,000, Radio Carmarthenshire’s weekly reach is 143,000, both reaching 19% of the population in their areas.
  • Capital South Wales has a reach of 196,000 with average listening hours of 3.9 hours, an increase of 8,000 listeners.
  • Capital North Wales and Heart North Wales have increased their listeners by 7,000 and 25,000 respectively.
  • Nation Radio’s reach has increased by 18,000 to 150,000 a reach of 8%
  • Easy Radio Wales (was Swansea Bay radio) has lost listeners and has a reach of 11,000 down from Q2’s reported 14,000

If you would like to advertise on radio please contact our experienced team.

Rajar Q4 2021 Results

Pink Radio

This is the second Rajar to utilise the new measuring methodology; conducted via an app running that identified radio stations by matching exposure to a stations audio output rather than face to face data gathering.

We have highlighted some interesting statistics.

National

Global has grown their weekly listeners to 25.8m  and a 24% share.

Though Heart & Smooth Radio are down just 1%, Heart has 8.54m listeners, just ahead of Radio 1 and Smooth has 5.43m. Heart’s Breakfast Show with Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden has also lost listeners but remains the UK’s biggest commercial radio show and commercial breakfast show with 3.86 million listeners. Capital Breakfast hasn’t faired so well losing 250,000 listeners since the last Rajar with an audience of 2.58m.

Capital Network had 6.35m listeners in Q4 (down 2.7%) but remains No.1 music station with 1.7m weekly listeners listened to in London.

Radio X had a great Rajar with an 8.6% increase in listeners to 2.11m. Breakfast host Chris Moyles had an increase in his audience from 1.08m to 1.17m and Johnny Vaughan’s drive show is has 974,000 listeners. 

Bauer Q4 results show that they have a 20.6 million reach across its stations with three out of five of the top commercial digital stations (No.1 Kisstory, No.3 Absolute 80s, No.4 Planet Rock).Absolute  was down 13.7% on the prior quarter (2.23m).

Kiss network was down 4.4% on the previous quarter to 4.53m. The No.1 commercial digital-only station, Kisstory was up 2% to 2.3m.

The Virgin Radio network, which includes Virgin Radio UK, remains stable with 2.16m listeners during Q4. The Chris Evans Breakfast Show had just over one million listeners (up slightly on Q3), making it the No.1 digital-only commercial breakfast show. 

Local

Global Radio stations across Wales – Capital and Heart faired differently in the last Rajar: Heart North Wales had a great Rajar with reach increasing from 83,000 to 111,000 and Heart South Wales from 395,000 to 403,000. Listener hours have also increased from 7.9 per listener last Rajar to 9.2 this Rajar. Capital South Wales listenership has dropped marginally from 159,000 to 156,000, though average hours per listener has increased to 7 and reach remained at  15%. Capital North Wales and West lost just 1,000 listeners.

Radio Carmarthenshire and Radio Pembrokeshire have lost listeners with Radio Pembrokeshire dropping from 31,000 to 27,000.and Radio Carmarthenshire down by 2,000 listeners.

Nation Radio also lost listeners (2,000 weekly listeners) but average hours of listening per head  remained the same

Whilst Bridge FM more or less retained a level Q4 Rajar compared to Q3 2021,

The Wave unfortunately had a bad quarter dropping listeners by 20,000, though average listening hours remained the same.

In summary most local radio stations in Wales  have seen a drop in listenership for Rajar Dec 2021, Heart has gone from strength to strength over the last couple of Rajar’s so we will be interested to see the results from Q1 in three months time!

We thought we’d highlight a couple of other interesting statistics from Rajar before we sign off –

Digital radio platforms now accounts for 64.4% of all radio listening, according to data for Q4 2021 and listening via online and apps accounts for 16.9% of all listening  and listening via Digital TV accounts for 5% of all listening.

The new data shows that 40 million adults, or 72% of the population aged 15+, now tune into digital radio every week, with strong growth seen across a number of digital stations compared to Q3 2021. 

If you need help in choosing which radio  brand or stations are right for your business and you want to ensure your marketing budget is reaching your target market then give our team a call on 02921 320 200 or email at [email protected].

We’re here to help.

RAJAR Returns!

Rajar

After 18 months,  RAJAR has returned with interesting data highlighting a consumer listenership shift due to the pandemic and a new way of measuring audience figures.

We have collated a few highlights and top-line figures for you.

RAJAR measuring methods

These were conducted via an app running that identified radio stations by matching exposure to a stations audio output rather than face to face data gathering

Radio Audiences

This RAJAR shows that 89% of the UK population (15 yrs.+) is reached by radio each week.

Commercial radio reaches 66% of the population per week, for an average of 8.6 hours a week.

62% of the population is exposed to BBC radio per week –  72% of over 45s and 50% of under-55s

BBC Radio 2 accounts for 26% of all listening per week, with BBC Radio 1 following at 15%.

Global accounts for the highest amount of listening across its various stations, with 23.5% market share. Listening hours across its radio network grew 5% year on year versus Q1 2020, and now stands at 236 million hours.

Decline in younger audiences

Results show a decline in younger audience listenership despite DAB and other digital formats now accounting for well over 60% of total listenership. There were 6.6 m young listeners in 2016 versus 5.9m this RAJAR. In the last five years 15-24s have reduced their radio listening by 40%. Between now and the last RAJAR, the drop’s been 17%. This audience is listening to less radio stations. In 2016 they listened to 3.4 stations versus 2.8 now. Youth stations targeting 15-24’s are losing reach… Radio 1 reach dropping from 8.9m to 8.2m, Kiss down from 3.5m to 2.7m. Capital though saw an increased reach to 6.5m from 6.3m, but still suffered a young audience fallout as did 1Xtra.

Younger audiences typically listen to more commercial radio than audiences over 45 – 69% vs 64%.

How and when audiences are listening

34% of radio listenership takes place across AM and FM stations, versus 66% in digital. Of the digital total DAB accounts for 43%, with online and in-app making up 18% – and DTV listenership accounting for 5%.  Radio is listened to by 32.5% of consumers through the internet weekly.

Times have changed with the breakfast peak now at 10am instead of 8am and drive time peak duration lessened from 4-6pm to 4pm. This is undoubtedly how the pandemic has changed listener times…. Hybrid working and working from home has clearly impacted listener patterns. Certainly working from home means people are listening for longer and more intently.

RAJAR on a local level

Some great new here in Wales, Heart reaches 20% of the population in their TSA with a reach of 395,000,  Nation Radio is closing the gap on Capital with a reach of 155,000 compared to Capital’s reach of 159,000 with Nation Radio having a 6.0 average hours per listener against Capitals 6.1. The smaller local stations faired well in their TSA’s too with radio Pembrokeshire having the highest reach of 30% followed by The Wave with 23%. And a 10.4% listening share.

To add to the positive outcomes of RAJAR, advertising spend on radio is forecast to grow by 18.6% this year, underpinning marketeers faith in utilising this platform to have their message heard

If you have any questions about radio advertising, contact our team today!

Radio in Wales: RAJAR Q4 2019

Although we’re in 2020 it’s time for the last quarterly RAJAR of 2019! Time to see how the radio stations of Wales performed as we left the decade.

Top-line Stats

  • 87% of the UK population tune into radio every week, a slight drop from 88%.
  • On average a listener tunes into 20.3 hours of live radio per week.

Local

Overall, it was a pretty dismal last quarter for the stations we surveyed.

In Q3, Heart South Wales’ reach jumped up 59,000 to 453,000, the biggest increase of all the stations The Media Angel surveyed. However, in Q4 their reach was down 48,000 to 405,000. Their % reach also fell by 3% to 21%.

After a positive Q3, The Wave 96.4 FM’s reach dropped by 23,000 to 114,000 in Q4, bringing them back down to Q2’s figures. Their % reach also fell by 5% to 24%.

Kiss (West) experience an increase of reach in Q3, up to 386,000, however in Q4 their reach declined by 27,000 to 359,000. Their reach % dropped marginally by 1%, to 14%.

Smooth North West and Wales’ increased by 12,000 to 61,000 however Smooth South Wales’ reach decreased by 20,000 to 77,000.

Local stations in Swansea experienced minor decreases. Swansea Bay Radio’s reach decreased by 2,000 to 24,000. Swansea Sound’s reach also declined by 7,000 to 29,000.

Capital received mixed results in Wales. Capital South Wales’ reached decreased significantly by 33,000 to 180,000 while Capital North West and Wales increased slightly by 3,000 to 126,000. Capital South Wales’ % reach also declined by 3% to 17%, while Capital North West and Wales remained steady at 12%.

% Reach and listener hours remained relatively unchanged across the board, with most stations seeing a slight decrease.

Heart South Wales retains the highest listening hours with 9.3, although this is down slightly from 9.5 in Q3.

Kiss (West) has the lowest listener hours at 4.1, a decrease from 4.6 in Q3.

National

Over the last two quarters, the biggest national story has to be the loss of listeners on Zoe Ball’s breakfast show on Radio 2.

Between Q1 and Q2 of 2019, Ball’s figures fell from 9.05 million to 8.27 million after she took over from Chris Evans. In Q3, figures fell again to 7.9 million listeners, the lowest audience figures for the Radio 2 breakfast show in a decade.

However, in Q4 it seems at last this trend has reversed. Ball’s breakfast show attracted an average weekly audience of 8.24 million in the fourth quarter of 2019, an increase of 335,000.

Chris Evans left Radio 2 to join Virgin Radio, and despite promising initial listening figures, they remained flat in Q3 at 1.1 million. In Q4, Evans has added 79,000 listeners to his show.

Greg James on BBC Radio 1 lost 237,000 listeners, bringing his average weekly audience to 4.81 million.

Overall, the Heart brand across the UK remains the biggest commercial radio brand, with 9.523m weekly listeners – though this is down from 9.8m last quarter and 9.7m a year ago. Heart’s national breakfast show with Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden saw a drop of 272,000 listeners compared to Q3/19 – but at 4.287m is still the country’s biggest commercial radio show.

Image result for heart amanda and jamie

The Capital brand lost 8% of its reach in the last 12 months, dropping to 7.595m from 8.251m – with 720,000 listeners shed from the main Capital network across the UK.

The Smooth brand is also down on both the quarter and the year, while Classic FM fared better – increasing audiences from 5.3m a year ago and 5.1m in Q3 to 5.461m this time. Gold is up slightly to 1.282m.

At Bauer, its 2019 digital stations Scala and Country Hits Radio each now have just under a quarter of a million listeners each. Scala is on 249,000 (up from 231k in Q3, but down from the Q2 debut of 258k). Total hours for Scala are the highest they’ve been at 1.571m.

Image result for scala radio

Greatest Hits Radio and the Greatest Hits Network have both increased from their debuts in Q3/19, with the brand now reaching 1.264m a week (up from 1.209m last quarter).

The ‘Hits Radio Brand’ (including Greatest Hits and non-Hits branded stations such as Radio City, Metro, Hallam and Clyde) is up 8% year on year to 6.657m.

KISSTORY saves the day for the Kiss brand though – with a 22.1% annual increase in audience size thanks to move from SDL to D1. The Kiss Network though drops 5% to 5.2m.

Digital

  • 66% of the population tune into digital radio every week. DAB has a 70% share of listening hours, Online with 21% and DTV with 8%.
  • 94% of smart speaker owners use it to listen to audio content e.g. radio, music, podcasts.

So which radio station is right for you?

If you want to make sure you’re using your marketing budget to its full potential and using the right radio station(s) to reach your target market, then give our team a call on 02921 320 200 or email at [email protected].

Sources
BBC News, Radio Today, RAJAR
Please scroll to view whole table.

Station / Group Pop. (000s)Q2 2019 Reach (000s)Q3 2019 Reach (000s)Reach up or down (000s)Q2 2019 Reach %Q3 2019 Reach %Reach % up or down (%)Q2 2019 Avg. Hours Per ListenerQ3 2019 Avg. Hours Per ListenerAvg. Hours per listener up or downTotal Hours (000s)Q2 2019 Listening Share in TSA %Q3 2019 Listening Share in TSA %
102.5 Radio Pembrokeshire 1023632-435%31%-4%5.85.5-0.31768.7%7.90%
106.3 Bridge FM 1322222017%17%0%4.84.4-0.41004.4%4.00%
96.4 FM The Wave479137114-2329%24%-5%77.40.484010.6%10.10%
Capital North West and Wales1038123126312%12%0%6.56.60.18383.9%4.00%
Capital South Wales1058213180-3320%17%-3%4.44.80.48554.7%4.50%
Heart North Wales 729127124-317%17%0%6.46.60.28245.8%5.80%
Heart South Wales1923453405-4824%21%-3%9.59.3-0.2374911.4%10.80%
Kiss (West)2512386359-2715%14%-1%4.64.1-0.514563.7%3.10%
Radio Carmarthenshire and Scarlet FM1392926-321%19%-2%6.66.4-0.21707.1%6.60%
Nation Radio Wales 17601415514118%9%-9%3.74.81.17513.8%2.40%
Smooth Radio North West and Wales 10384961125%6%1%6.16.40.33931.4%1.90%
Smooth Radio South Wales10589777-209%7%-2%9.48.7-0.76734.6%3.60%
Swansea Bay Radio (surveyed as Nation Hits!) 4792624-25%5%0%6.54.8-1.71171.8%1.40%
Swansea Sound – 1170 MW 4793629-78%6%-2%5.84.4-1.41282.3%1.50%

Radio stations surveyed:

102.5 Radio Pembrokeshire, 106.3 Bridge FM, 96.4 FM The Wave, Capital North West and Wales, Capital South Wales, Heart North Wales, Heart South Wales, Kiss (West), Radio Carmarthenshire and Scarlet FM, Radio Ceredigion, Smooth Radio North West and Wales, Smooth Radio South Wales, Swansea Bay Radio (surveyed as Nation Hits!), Nation Radio Wales, Swansea Sound – 1170 MW

The latest Rajar, Q3 2019

In the last RAJAR survey of 2019, how have stations across Wales and nationally fared?

Top line Stats

88% of the UK population tune into radio every week.

On average a listener tunes into 20.4 hours of live radio per week.

59% of listeners tune in at home

25% in a vehicle and

16% at work/elsewhere.

The Rajar data also shows large parts of the British public are discovering podcasts, with 8.4 million saying they listened to them, up from 6 million at the same time last year. Up 40% year on year

Local

In the last Rajar of 2019, the stations surveyed by The Media Angel saw a range of results.

Heart South Wales turned around their fortunes. In Q3, their reach has jumped up 59,000 to 453,000, the biggest increase of all the stations The Media Angel surveyed. Q2 their reach was down to 394,000. 

The Wave 96.4 FM reversed the decline with a jump in reach to 137,000. Their % reach was also up, to 29%. Up from 115,000 and 24% reach.

Kiss (West) was another station who experience a decline in reach in Q2 but in Q3 their reach has increased by 29,000 to 386,000.

Smooth North West and Wales’ reach was down again by 27% to 49,000. However, Smooth South Wales’ reach increased by 16,000 to 97,000.

Local stations in Swansea experienced a mixed bag. Swansea Bay Radio’s reach increased by 5,000 to 26,000. Up 36%. However, Swansea Sound’s reach declined 10% to 36.000.

It was a bad quarter for Capital, as both their North West and Wales and South Wales stations experienced declines in reach. South Wales down by 18,000 listeners, now 213,000 weekly listeners and North West and Wales were down by 17,000.

% Reach remained relatively unchanged across the board. The biggest loss was Capital South Wales, losing 2% now 20%. While Heart South Wales increased by 5% to 24%.

Listener hours also experienced little change. Heart South Wales retains the highest listening hours with 9.5. 106.3 The Bridge FM lost the most hours now 4.8 hrs, down 2.7. Swansea Bay Radio6.5 hrs and Smooth South Wales were both up 9.4hrs, by 2.4 and 2.2 respectively.

Capital South Wales has the lowest listening hours at 4.4.

National

The biggest news in national radio has to be Zoe Ball’s breakfast show continual decline on Radio 2.

Between Q1 and Q2 of 2019, Ball’s figures fell from 9.05 million to 8.27 million after she took over from Chris Evans. In the latest quarter, figures have fallen again to 7.9 million listeners, the lowest audience figures for the Radio 2 breakfast show in a decade.

Chris Evans left to join Virgin Radio, and despite promising initial listening figures, they have remained flat in Q3 at 1.1 million.

Global has continued to grow its’ audience, and Heart now attracts more weekly listeners than Radio 1 and the breakfast show has become the biggest commercial radio programme in the country.

Bauer, the other major commercial radio owner, has seen enormous growth at its digital-only Kisstory station which grew 18% to 2.6 million.

Digital

With digital listening now accounting of 56.8% of all radio listening (up from 52.4% in Q3 2018, equating to 65% of the population listening to digital radio every week).

28% of adults now claim to own a voice-activated smart device it seems they are a neglected piece of equipment as only 18% of owners say they use one every day.

So which radio station is right for you?

If you want to make sure you’re using your marketing budget to its’ full potential and using the right radio station(s) to reach your target market, then give our team a call on 02921 320 200 or email at [email protected].

Sources

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/oct/24/radio-2-breakfast-show-audience-falls-lowest-level-decade, https://www.musicweek.com/media/read/rajar-kisstory-s-digital-reign-continues-6-music-grows-mobile-listening-static-and-more-q3-2019-takeaways/077849, https://radiotoday.co.uk/2019/10/rajar-q3-2019-the-quarterly-radio-infographic-is-here/

RAJAR

Radio stations surveyed: 102.5 Radio Pembrokeshire, 106.3 Bridge FM, 96.4 FM The Wave, Capital North West and Wales, Capital South Wales, Heart North Wales, Heart South Wales, Kiss (West), Radio Carmarthenshire and Scarlet FM, Radio Ceredigion, Smooth Radio North West and Wales, Smooth Radio South Wales, Swansea Bay Radio (surveyed as Nation Hits!), Nation Radio South Wales, Swansea Sound – 1170 MW

How has radio fared in RAJAR Q2 2019?

In the second RAJAR survey of 2019, commercial radio has smashed its own record and achieved the highest ever weekly reach. But, how have stations across Wales fared?

Local

Locally there were a few stations who stood out for not having a good quarter. 

One of those was 96.4 FM The Wave who’s reach decreased by 28,000 to 115,000. Their reach % also decreased by 6% to 24%, the biggest drop across all the stations The Media Angel surveyed.

Local stations in Swansea also took a hit. Swansea Bay Radio’s reach was down 8,000 to 21,000. Swansea Sound also lost 8,000 in reach, down to 40,000.

Capital experience a mixed bag of results. Capital South Wales’ reach increased by 14,000 to 231,000. However, Capital North West and Wales’ reach dropped by 6,000 to 140,000.

Although still the largest radio station in Wales, Heart South Wales’ reach also decreased significantly, down 16,000 to 394,000. Kiss (West) and Smooth North West and Wales experience reach losses of 15,000 and 12,000 respectively.

The station with the most loyal listeners is Heart South Wales with 8.8 hours per listener. Smooth Radio South Wales saw the biggest drop in listener hours against the stations The Media Angel surveyed, with a decline of 3.8 hours to 7.2 per listener.

Radio Pembrokeshire still retains its’ position with the highest weekly reach at 35%, followed by The Wave with 24% and Capital South Wales at 22%.

National

Across national radio, the biggest loss had to go to Zoe Ball who lost 780,000 weekly listeners from her Radio 2 breakfast show.

Zoe Ball took over from Chris Evans in January, after he left the station to join Virgin Radio. In the second quarter of 2019, Ball’s figures fell from 9.05m to 8.27m.

Chris, meanwhile, has added 63,000 listeners to his Virgin Radio breakfast show – now reaching 1,111,000 across the (compared with 1,048,000 in Q1/19). That helped Virgin Radio UK increase its overall reach as a station from 1.3m to 1.545m – a jump of 18% quarter on quarter.

Global is celebrating its highest ever weekly reach (25.6m), hours (238m) and share (23.4%) as a group, with the country’s biggest four commercial radio brands being Heart (9.7m), Capital (8.2m), Smooth (5.7m) and Classic FM (5.6m). Kiss is 5th with 5.3m listeners.

The new Capital Breakfast with Roman Kemp, Vick Hope & Sonny Jay reaches 3.796m – that’s an increase from Q1/19 but a drop of 164,000 from a year ago when the shows were presented regionally.

Greg James posts his highest figures since taking over Radio 1 breakfast last summer – his Monday to Thursday show has 5.69m listeners aged 10+, compared with 5.44m last year.

Digital

If you want to make sure you’re using your marketing budget to its full potential, then give our team a call on 02921 320 200 or email at [email protected]

Sources

https://mediatel.co.uk/newsline/2019/08/01/rajar-q2-2019-national-stations-and-networks

RAJAR Q2 2019: The quarterly radio Infographic is here

RAJAR Q2 2019: London and national brands round-up

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-49179840

RAJAR

Radio stations surveyed:

102.5 Radio Pembrokeshire, 106.3 Bridge FM, 96.4 FM The Wave, Capital North West and Wales, Capital South Wales, Heart North Wales, Heart South Wales, Kiss (West), Radio Carmarthenshire and Scarlet FM, Radio Ceredigion, Smooth Radio North West and Wales, Smooth Radio South Wales, Swansea Bay Radio (surveyed as Nation Hits!), Nation Radio South Wales, Swansea Sound – 1170 MW

RAJAR Q1 2019: The Results

The first quarterly results of RAJAR 2019 have been released, and across Welsh radio, some stations have seen significant drop in reach figures.  

In this RAJAR blog, we’ll take you through some new statistics, local and national performance and digital news.

Quick Stats

Local

Heart North Wales reach fell from 118,000 to 112,000. This is a further decrease in reach from Q3 and Q4 2018 when it fell from 146,000 to 118,000.

Heart South Wales hasn’t fared any better, with reach falling from 463,000 to 410,000, a further decrease from Q3 and Q4 2018 when it fell from 482,000 to 463,000. However, their listener hours did increase by 1.2 over the last quarter. Heart North Wales also had an increase in their listener hours by 0.8.

Capital North West and Wales saw reach jump from 130,000 to 146,000. This is growth on top of Q3 and Q4 2018 when it increased from 116,000 to 130,000.

However, Capital South Wales’ reach decreased from 224,000 to 217,000, putting an end to the growth they saw in Q3 and Q4 of 2018 when reach increased from 210,000 to 224,000.

This may be surprising after Capital’s long-running ‘Cash Call’ promotion that their listener hours haven’t increased. Both stations’ listener hours decreased; Capital North Wales and West by 1.2 and Capital South Wales by 0.7.

Kiss (West) saw a significant decrease in reach from 449,000 to 372,000 with their listener hours also down marginally.

Smooth Radio North West and Wales’ reach increased greatly from 58,000 to 71,000, a growth of 21,000.

96.4FM The Wave’s growth slowed as they saw a decrease in reach from 145,000 to 143,000, down on last quarter where they saw an increase from 123,000 to 145,000. However, their listener hours grew by 0.5.

Of the stations we looked at, Radio Pembrokeshire held the highest % reach with a 35% reach of the population, followed by 96.4 FM The Wave with 30% reach. Capital South Wales and Heart South Wales both have a 21% reach of the populations.

National

Radiocentre has said commercial radio owners’ investment in new talent and brands has seen the industry’s ratings reach a new high of 36.1 million listeners for the first quarter of 2019.

Rajar, the body responsible for measuring radio audiences in the UK, has reported that there are now 1.7 million more people listening to commercial radio stations than the BBC radio networks combined – BBC Radio 4’s audience decline was noted at 750,000 in a year.

This is the largest lead that commercial radio has ever had over the BBC. Epitomising this perhaps is BBC Radio 2 host Chris Evans move to ad-free Virgin radio, or Simon Mayo’s move to Bauer Media’s recently launched Scala.

The positive stats from Rajar claimed that 66% of the population listens to commercial radio stations each week – and 89% to radio overall. It added that total listening hours for commercial radio were up 1.6% year-on-year.

News UK’s Virgin Radio saw traffic up “seven-fold” during the first 10 weeks of Evans’ breakfast presenting gig.

The ad break-free show, delivered by partner Sky, secured 1.05 million, around 4.5 million weekly listening hours which was a five-fold growth quarter-on-quarter and seven-fold growth year-on-year for the year in the same spot.

Radio and advertising giant Global celebrated its channels Heart, Capital, Classic FM and Smooth taking the top four spots. It noted LBC gets highest ever reach in its 47-year history (more than 2.3 million weekly listeners) – an increase of 90,000 listeners in the past year – as a particular high point.

Bauer Media noted that its reach was 17.7m (which was up 1.1% year on year). In the period there were two new channel launches in Scala Radio and Country Hits Radio that it hopes to scale up in the next quarter.

Digital

In an average week, digital listening accounts for 577 million hours. DAB has the biggest share of digital listening hours with 73%, followed by online with 18%.

41% of 15-24 year old social media users claim to receive updates about their favourite radio station or presenter.

If you want to make sure you’re using your marketing budget to its full potential, then give our team a call on 02921 320 200 or email at [email protected]

Sources: RAJAR , The Drum

Stations surveyed: Radio Pembrokeshire, 106.3 Bridge FM, 96.4 FM The Wave, Capital North West and Wales, Capital South Wales, Heart North Wales, Heart South Wales, Kiss (West), Radio Carmarthenshire and Scarlet FM, Radio Ceredigion, Smooth Radio North West and Wales, Smooth Radio South Wales, Swansea Bay Radio, Nation Radio South Wales and Swansea Sound – 1170 MW.

Take a look at our blog

Keep up to date with the latest industry news

By using this site you accept the Terms of use | Privacy policy | Cookie policy | Sitemap

Ⓒ The Media Angel Ltd 2024. All rights reserved.