RAJAR: Q4 2018

The last quarterly results of RAJAR 2018 have been released, and across radio in Wales, with a couple of exceptions the stations haven’t seen many major changes.

Read on to find out how listening figures across stations in Wales and the UK have changed,

Local

It wasn’t a good quarter for Heart with both their South and North Wales stations seeing reach decrease. Heart North Wales fell 28,000, from 146,000 to 118,000. Heart South Wales fell 19,000, from 482,000 to 463,000. However, Heart South Wales has grown from 444,000 listeners from Q2 of 2018.

Capital meanwhile saw their reach increase across their North and South stations. Capital South Wales’ reach increased by 14,000 too, from 210,000 to 224,000Capital North West and Wales’ reach increased by 14,000 from 116,000 to 130,000.. It will be interesting to see if their ‘Capital Cash Call’ promotion has boosted their listener hours in Q1 of 2019!

96.4FM The Wave saw a great increase of 22,000 up from 123,000 to 145,000. Nation South Wales also saw their reach increase by 20,000, from 116,000 to 136,000.

Radio Pembrokeshire once again maintained the highest % reach with 36%, The Wave at 30% (up 4%) and Heart South Wales at 24%

Swansea Bay (Nation Hits) lost the largest amount of listeners, 24%, followed by Heart North Wales with 19%.

Other stations such as Radio Ceredigion, Radio Carmarthenshire and Smooth North West & Wales saw little change.

National

48.4 million (88%) adults listen to radio every week, 65% of adults listen to commercial radio.

Commercial Radio remains ahead of the BBC for an eighth consecutive quarter with weekly reach of 35.6 million. The BBC’s figures have decreased slightly both quarterly and yearly, now with a weekly reach of 34m.

The networked stations have again reported strong reach, as listening figures have continued to stay well into the millions; Heart Brand 9.7m, Capital Brand 8.3m and Kiss Network 5.6m.

Dave Berry Breakfast continues to be the national breakfast champion, with 2.2m listeners tuning into the Absolute Network breakfast show. Kiss comes in second, with 1.8m national weekly listeners.

Virgin Radio sees highest listening hours ever, ahead of Chris Evans moving over from BBC Radio 2

Bauer’s most recent rebrand Hits Radio has performed strongly. The network boasted an audience of 6.2m, whilst the flagship transmitter, formally known as Key 103 reported 271,000 listeners.

Digital

Digital listening continues to grow with 63% of adults tuning into digital radio (through a DAB, DTV, Online or App) every week.

In an average week, we listen to 527m hours of digital radio: DAB has a 73% share of digital listening hours, DTV 9% and Online 18%.

The share of all radio listening via a digital platform now stands at 52.6%, this is the fourth consecutive quarter of digital listening beyond 50%, which was crucial for the digital switch over.

Breaking this down further, 53.9% Commercial Radio is listened to digitally vs. BBC’s 51.5%.

In the digital only chats, Kisstory continues to lead the way with 1.8m weekly listeners (slightly down from 2.2m last quarter). 80s music continues to be the most popular decade of choice, with Absolute 80’s 1.5m and Heart 80s 1.3m.

Looking at how we listen, 27% of adults listen to the radio via a mobile phone or tablet once a month. This figure increases to 35% when looking at people aged 15-24.

Where are people listening?

In an average week, 68% of all adults listen at Home, 65% in the car (or other modes of transport) and 22% listen at work or elsewhere.

If you want to incorporate radio into your marketing plans or ensure you’re using the right stations give our team a call on 02921 320 200 or email at [email protected]

Source: Rajar Q4 2018

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