The JNLR radio research has been released and it shows that 81% of the population tune into the radio every day. While that’s a healthy reach, given the fragmentation that’s seen in other media, there is an underlying downward trend apparent over the last few books.
In 2009 the reach was a particularly healthy 87% indicating that, on average, it’s dropped about a point a year over the last seven years. I think that has to be seen in perspective to radios biggest geographic market, Dublin, where the decline is much more pronounced. It too was at 87% in ’09 but it has now fallen to a 76% reach, with a quiet rapid decline over the more recent few surveys.
RTE1 still dominates the radio market with a commanding thirteen point lead on its nearest rival Today FM. RTE reaches 24% of the population every day or 880,000 listeners. That’s down 20,000 on the year and static on the last book.
| Latest | Book on Book | Year on Year | ||||||||||||||
| Station | 2016Q4 | 2016Q3 | +/- | +/- | Ch | 2015Q4 | +/- | +/- | Ch | |||||||
| Any Radio | 81% | 2982 | 82% | 2977 | -1% | 5 | 0% | 83% | 3001 | -2% | -19 | -1% | ||||
| RTE Radio 1 | 24% | 880 | 24% | 880 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 25% | 900 | -1% | -20 | -2% | ||||
| Today FM | 11% | 392 | 11% | 397 | 0% | -5 | -1% | 12% | 437 | -1% | -45 | -10% | ||||
| RTE 2FM | 10% | 345 | 9% | 335 | 1% | 10 | 3% | 10% | 374 | 0% | -29 | -8% | ||||
| Newstalk | 10% | 370 | 10% | 367 | 0% | 3 | 1% | 11% | 396 | -1% | -26 | -7% | ||||
| RTE Lyric FM | 4% | 135 | 4% | 136 | 0% | -1 | -1% | 4% | 138 | 0% | -3 | -2% | ||||
Graphic: Radio Listenership
Behind RTE1 is Today FM on 392,000 and an 11% reach. This is down 45,000 listeners on the previous year and 5,000 on the last book. The station has had a number of changes in recent times and they look like they are not finished by all accounts. This survey would take in most of the time Anton Savage was on air as he departed early December.
2FM have struggled with a settled format and audience over the last few surveys. The last time they had an increase in listenership was in the 15Q2 book so it good to see that they added some listeners for the first time since then in this book. They are up 10,000 on the previous book but back 29,000 on last year.
Newstalk also made a few changes during the year revamping the breakfast show and moving George Hook. The station added 3,000 on the last book settling them in at a 10% reach but they are back 26,000 listeners on last year. Lyric has a 4% reach and comes in at 135,000 listeners down marginally on both last year and last book.
The only stations to make any gains in this book were 2FM and Newstalk.
Graphic: Radio Reach
Table: Radio Shares
| 2016Q4 | 2015Q4 | Ch | 2016Q3 | Ch | |
| RTE Radio 1 | 23.60% | 23.10% | 0.50% | 23.80% | -0.20% |
| Today FM | 7.60% | 7.60% | 0.00% | 7.50% | 0.10% |
| RTE 2FM | 6.00% | 6.50% | -0.50% | 5.80% | 0.20% |
| Newstalk | 5.90% | 6.50% | -0.60% | 6.00% | -0.10% |
| RTE Lyric FM | 2.00% | 2.00% | 0.00% | 2.00% | 0.00% |
Looking at the shares there were some small changes book on book and year on year with 2FM and Newstalk dropping about half-a-point each. Below is the reach of each station throughout the day.
Graphic: Day Parts
