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 Returns!

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!

Global leads the UK commercial radio market with 25 million weekly listeners

This quarter RAJAR have released information that door to door audience surveys were not possible during Q2 2020 due to Covid-19.

RAJAR numbers are still based on the Q1 surveys, but run on a 12 month roll to provide a larger sample. They also include up to date census data. The figures below are based on this data.

• Heart- Heart remains the UK’s biggest commercial radio brand with 9.6 million people tuning in every week.
• Capital- Capital remains the UK’s no.1 hit music brand with 7.9 million weekly listeners.
• LBC- Leading Britain’s Conversation, LBC reaches 2.7 million listeners across the UK each week.
• Capital XTRA- Capital XTRA reaches a huge 1.9 million people across the UK every week.
• Smooth- Smooth is the UK’s third largest commercial radio brand with 5.7 million tuning in each week.
• Classic FM- Classic FM again cements its position as the UK’s most popular classical music station with 5.5 million weekly listeners.
• Radio X- Nationally, Radio X reaches 1.7 million listeners every week.
• Gold- Gold reaches an audience of more than 1.3 million listeners every week
• Ashley Tabor-King OBE, Founder & Executive President of Global, said: “I’m incredibly proud that Global brands continue to lead the commercial radio market with the top 4 UK commercial stations, Heart, Capital, Smooth and Classic FM.

Over the past 4 months, as the world has gone through incredibly challenging times, people’s daily habits have shifted and we have all made huge adaptations in our lives. However, radio has remained a constant source of information, entertainment, company and comfort.

If you need help with a radio campaign, please contact one of our team here: [email protected].

Source: Global Media & Entertainment Limited

The fight for our digital listening hours has begun

Mediatel’s ‘The Future of Audio’ conference has seen several brands stake a claim in the digital audio future.

66% of the UK’s population now listen to audio via a digitally connected device, throughout the week and as the way consumers listen to audio evolves, it opens up opportunities for growth and competition, within audio advertising.

Spotify looks to take on traditional in-car live radio

Spotify has announced plans to launch driving playlists and increase investment in podcasts in a move to demonstrate they are ‘absolutely focused’ on growing their share of in-car listening.

Currently, the most common type of in-car audio consumption is via FM/AM or DAB live radio. Only 8% of those surveyed in Ofcom’s Media Nations 2019 report listen to music via a streaming service, and only 4% listen to podcasts.

However as in-car media systems such as Apple Carplay and smart voice assistants such as Siri and Bixby improve, it will be even easier for consumers to listen to their own music and podcasts in-car.

Bauer to build on digital growth

Another brand to embrace digital growth is Bauer Media. Their digital station, KISSTORY, is now the largest digital radio station in the UK with over 14 million users. 2019 has also seen successful debuts from Country Hits Radio and Scala Radio.

Chief Revenue Officer for Bauer Media, Simon Kilby, outlined how the current trend of in podcasting, DAB, and the rise of online listening matched growth in connected cars, 5G and smart speakers.

Commercial radio is in its fifth consecutive year of growth and captures 36m listeners each week in the UK and since 2015, there has been a 23% increase in audio hours consumed in the UK (Rajar).

Kilby said this was further evidence that the digital age was not negatively disrupting the sector.

Neither, he added, were new entrants such as Apple Music and Spotify, which he viewed as “complementary to the ecosystem.”

However, the growth in connectivity is not without future threats. Smart speaker owners such as Apple and Google may look to branch out in later years, with some experts Mediatel News spoke with suggest US tech giants might turn into “gatekeepers” for UK radio content, ushering in a new wave of competition.

Is your brand ready for changes in the way consumers listen to audio? Get in touch today to see how our team can recommend the best way to reach your audience via audio.

Further Reading;

https://themediaangel.co.uk/2019/04/16/advertise-audio-radio/

https://themediaangel.co.uk/2019/09/25/how-are-audiences-consuming-media-in-2019/

https://themediaangel.co.uk/2019/08/05/rajar-q2-2019-wales/

Sources; https://mediatel.co.uk/newsline/2019/10/16/bauer-outlines-plans-for-radios-internet-enabled-future/, https://mediatel.co.uk/newsline/2019/10/14/why-digital-is-transforming-the-audio-landscape/, https://mediatel.co.uk/newsline/2019/10/16/spotifys-plans-to-take-ownership-of-in-car-audio/

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

RAJAR Q2 2018: the result

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

 

Local

Heart South Wales is once again the Number One Commercial Radio Station in Wales with a massive 444,000 listeners every week and an impressive market share of 11.1%. They saw the biggest increase of reach, up 45,000 to 444,000. They also saw their average listener hours increase from 8.6 to 9.7. Heart North Wales also saw an increase in reach, from 142,000 to 155,000.

96.4 FM The Wave had a reach increase of 17,000, up to 135,000. Their average listener hours also increased to 6.7, up from 6.3.

Further afield

Global claimed four out of the top five commercial radio brands in the UK (Heart, Capital, Smooth and Classic FM). Capital – remains the UK’s number 1 music brand, growing reach to 8.3million weekly listeners across the UK. Global Capital XTRA has a new record of 1,800,000 weekly listeners across the UK, and the Heart brand surges forward with a huge 9.8million weekly listeners, its biggest ever.

Further afield, Global and Absolute recorded increases. The Absolute Radio Network reached a new record of 4,740,000 listeners every week, up 500,000 in a year. Absolute Radio reached 2,540,000 listeners every week, up 370,000 in a year

BBC

Perhaps surprisingly the only BBC digital stations to see audiences increase were 1Xtra, Asian Network, World Service and 5 Live Sports Extra. Radio 4 is down 8.3% to 10.5million, Radio 1 is down 3.7% to 9.2million. However, it remains the number one UK station for 15-24 year olds.

Radio 2 is up to a share of 17.9% of the UK listening, up from 17.6% last year. It now reaches 14.9million weekly listeners.

Digital and DAB

And overall digital listening is up year on year, but down slightly this time compared with last quarter. 50.2% of radio listening in the UK is now via digital platforms (up from 48.7% in Q2/17 but down from 50.9% in Q1/18). Digital listening hours grew by 6.4m over the year.

DAB listening now accounts for 36.3% of all radio listening, and 72.3% of digital listening. 9.3% of listening is via online and apps (up by 4%), while there was a drop in listening via digital TV which is down 16% and now accounts for 4.6% of all listening.

Source: RAJAR and Global.

 

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