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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