Day: 5 November 2014

This year, like every year, the Top 30 is a mixed bag. Still the biggest draw in the radio landscape is Morning Ireland with a reach of 429,000 people every morning which is 12% of the population its down 19,000 on 2013Q3 or 4%.  This is followed by Liveline at 382,000 and its sees a fall of 31,000 or 8% on the year.

Actually most of the top portion table have seen a decline in listeners over the year and most of them in turn are from the RTE stable. The table is below so there’s no need to goo into too much detail. I’ve made the table “sortable” so if you click on any of the words in the table header (you’ll see the arrow beside ‘Station’) is will sort them ascending and descending.

I do strip out the extremities in the table. There is always the caveat: some of the comparisons are not really that valid, but I’m forced into it! Programme times do change, as to the presenters, so the time slots and presenters may not always be the same as last year.

The biggest gain is for Pat Kenny adding 83% of 65,000 listeners. It should be noted that in the 2013Q3 survey he had only two months under his belt, so mathematically he was going to show huge gains in this survey. Then we have Alison Crutis gaining 29% or 29,000 listeners. Four of the five top performing stations are non-RTE stations which is interesting.

Another interesting one is the increase in listeners for Tubridy. The time slot increase by a marginal 15 minutes, but the shows begins at 8:45. Could it be that he slingshots past what seems to be a choice change in radio at 9:00am and holds on to a few listeners?   

Biggest fallers are very neatly confined to the weekend schedule on RTE1 and mainly Saturday. There’s very little else to add to that!

Station ▴	Time	Programme	2014Q3	2013Q3	+/- ‘000	+/- %
RTE	07.00-09.00	Morning Ireland	429	448	-19	-4%
RTE	13.45-15.00	Liveline	382	413	-31	-8%
RTE  Sat	11.00-13.00	Marian Finucane	350	370	-20	-5%
RTE  Sun	11.00-13.00	Marian Finucane	342	346	-4	-1%
RTE	13.00-13.45	News at One	320	362	-42	-12%
RTE	09.00-10.00	John Murray	302	325	-23	-7%
RTE	10.00-12.00	Sean O’Rourke	295	334	-39	-12%
RTE  Sat	10.00-11.00	The Business	282	319	-37	-12%
RTE  Sat	09.00-10.00	Playback	257	293	-36	-12%
RTE  Sun	10.00-11.00	Miriam O’Callaghan	236	276	-40	-14%
RTE	16.30-19.00	Drivetime	227	249	-22	-9%
Today	09.00-12.00	The Ray D’Arcy Show	221	231	-10	-4%
RTE  Sun	09.00-10.00	Sunday Miscellany	215	245	-30	-12%
RTE	12.00-13.00	Ronan Collins	209	234	-25	-11%
RTE  Sat	13.00-14.00	Brian Dowling	202	226	-24	-11%
RTE	15.00-16.30	Mooney	198	224	-26	-12%
RTE  Sat	08.00-09.00	Countrywide	198	225	-27	-12%
Today	07.00-09.00	Ian Dempsey	196	180	16	9%
RTE  Sun	13.00-14.00	This Week	187	188	-1	-1%
RTE  Sat	14.00-18.00	Sport	184	175	9	5%
RTE  Sun	14.00-18.00	Sport	174	160	14	9%
2FM	08.45-11.00	Tubridy	171	152	19	13%
Newstalk	07.00-10.00	Breakfast	153	121	32	26%
Today	16.30-19.00	Matt Cooper	153	158	-5	-3%
Newstalk	10.00-12.30	Pat Kenny	143	78	65	83%
RTE  Sun	08.00-09.00	World Report	142	163	-21	-13%
2FM	11.00-14.00	Nicky Byrne	141	135	6	4%
Today  Sat	11.00-14.00	Phil Cawley	139	132	7	5%
Today  Sat	14.00-18.00	Sport	132	132	0	0%
Today  Sat	08.00-11.00	Alison Curtis	130	101	29	29%

 

 Big Gains

Station	Time	Programme	2014Q3	2013Q3	+/- ‘000	+/- %
Newstalk	10.00-12.30	Pat Kenny	143	78	65	83%
Today  Sat	08.00-11.00	Alison Curtis	130	101	29	29%
Newstalk	07.00-10.00	Breakfast	153	121	32	26%
2FM	08.45-11.00	Tubridy	171	152	19	13%
Today	07.00-09.00	Ian Dempsey	196	180	16	9%

Big Falls

Station	Time	Programme	2014Q3	2013Q3	+/- ‘000	+/- %
RTE  Sun	10.00-11.00	Miriam O’Callaghan	236	276	-40	-14%
RTE  Sun	08.00-09.00	World Report	142	163	-21	-13%
RTE  Sat	09.00-10.00	Playback	257	293	-36	-12%
RTE  Sun	09.00-10.00	Sunday Miscellany	215	245	-30	-12%
RTE  Sat	08.00-09.00	Countrywide	198	225	-27	-12%

 

Looking at Dublin the listenership of any radio has increased marginally both over the twelve months and book on book. Listenership in the capital is static at an 80% reach, which is  equivalent to 815,000 listeners every day in the 2014Q3 survey.

But underneath this metric lie some very interesting details. Below is a table of the current stations standings comparing them to the survey of 2013Q3. For the ‘book-on-book’ club I’ve also conjured up a table showing the last five surveys and how each station stood in that survey which is below that again

This time around there’s no grey area as we have a clear winner and a clear loser in the capital. Newstalk continues its relentless march to second slot (just not quite there yet – see graphic). It added 40,000 (4% points) listeners to bring it to 162,000 (16%) listeners in Dublin and now only 20,000 away from FM014’s long coveted second place, that’s a gain of 33% over the year. FM104 lost 25,000 (2% points) over the year, but the drop wasn’t as bad when looked at book on book. 

Station:	14Q3		13Q3		+/-	+/-
RTE Radio 1	280	28%	286	28%	-6	0%
FM 104	182	18%	207	20%	-25	-2%
Newstalk	162	16%	122	12%	40	4%
Spin 1038	138	14%	135	13%	3	1%
98FM	103	9%	81	8%	22	1%
Today FM	87	9%	77	8%	10	1%
Q102	82	8%	97	10%	-15	-2%
RTE 2FM	73	7%	66	7%	7	0%
RTE Lyric FM	61	6%	49	5%	12	1%
Radio Nova 100FM	52	5%	47	5%	5	0%
Sunshine 106.8	38	4%	30	3%	8	1%
Classic Hits 4FM	37	4%	29	3%	8	1%
Phantom 105.2FM	20	2%	17	2%	3	0%

Least we should forget the National station, RTE1, is streets ahead of the following pack in the metropolis with 280,000 (28%) listeners every day. Is a small drop of 6,000 listeners over the year but a small gain was seen book on book.

98 FM had somewhat of a growth spurt over the year gaining 22,000 (1% point) listeners to bring them to 9%. Again, book on book its number was a little less enthusiastic on the gains. Today FM managed to gain 10,000 listeners (1% point) over the year and a good deal of that was in the last quarter it would seem. It brings them to a reach of 9% in Dublin. 

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If we read into the numbers, then the punters in the capital have found a more cultural side in the twelve months with Lyric gaining 24% to 61,000 or 6%.

Below is the table of the last five surveys charting each stations percentage and headcount reach. It’s ‘rounds’ off any of the large gains and falls seen in a year on year analysis.

At this point it’s only fair to point out that Nova is thrown in the Dublin analysis by me for my convenience, but it’s not actually their ‘weight division’. Nova’s franchise area is the ‘Dublin Commuter’ area, taking in the city and it’s surrounds and the stations total official listenership is 66,000.   

	14Q3		14Q2		14Q1		13Q4		13Q3
Any Radio	815	80%	810	80%	804	79%	803	79%	809	80%
RTE Radio 1	280	28%	278	27%	275	27%	286	28%	286	28%
FM 104	182	18%	185	18%	194	19%	196	19%	207	20%
Newstalk	162	16%	150	15%	137	14%	128	13%	122	12%
Spin 1038	138	14%	136	13%	129	13%	127	13%	135	13%
98FM	103	9%	101	9%	88	9%	85	8%	81	8%
Today FM	87	9%	81	8%	74	7%	81	8%	77	8%
Q102	82	8%	91	9%	89	9%	87	9%	97	10%
RTE 2FM	73	7%	70	7%	71	7%	72	7%	66	7%
RTE Lyric FM	61	6%	57	6%	54	5%	55	5%	49	5%
Radio Nova 100FM	52	5%	55	5%	59	5%	50	5%	47	5%
Sunshine 106.8	38	4%	35	3%	34	3%	33	3%	30	3%
Classic Hits 4FM	37	4%	36	4%	32	3%	31	3%	29	3%
Phantom 105.2FM	20	2%	18	2%	15	1%	15	1%	17	2%
Other Region	12	1%	12	1%	9	1%	8	1%	6	1%

To show how the stations compare as the day progresses (and this is all Ex-RTE), I had to divide them into two groups and plot where they win/lose throughout the day. In this picture you see that Newstalk really dominates up until that 12:00 mark in Pat Kenny which seems to be less attractive to the listeners than the earlier portion of the programme and they lose about half their listeners.

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The tabs below show a different picture for each station as the quarter hour segments are plotted. If a station has gained or lost you can normally see where exactly that’s happened during the day. Its doesn’t need comment or explanation.

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Market Shares 

Market Shares never really throw up a huge story: This year Q102 lost 1.30% share, RTE1 and FM104 lost %1.20 share and Spin lost 0.2% – everyone else gained and Newstalk added and fairly exceptional 1.70% to its share over the year. 

Station	14Q3	13Q3	+/-
RTE Radio 1	33.40%	34.60%	-1.20%
FM104	11.60%	12.80%	-1.20%
Newstalk	10.00%	8.30%	1.70%
Spin 1038	7.10%	7.30%	-0.20%
Q102	6.90%	8.20%	-1.30%
Today FM	6.10%	5.80%	0.30%
98FM	5.90%	5.40%	0.50%
RTE 2FM	4.90%	4.80%	0.10%
Nova 100FM	3.90%	3.80%	0.10%
RTE Lyric FM	3.20%	2.70%	0.50%
Sunshine 106.8	2.50%	2.50%	0.00%
Classic Hits 4FM	2.30%	2.30%	0.00%
TXFM	1.30%	1.00%	0.30%

RTE Still completely dominates and the stretch is far greater over the other stations than the gap in say reach. The tabs below show the shares with and without RTE in the graphic.  

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