In this survey (2014Q4) the overall national listenership of radio grew marginally by 34,000 to 84%, but this also pushed it over the 3m listener mark. That’s up one percentage point on the survey of 2013Q4 and it’s the biggest national listenership radio has enjoyed since the survey of 2013Q2 as each subsequent survey the overall radio figure has remained either static or shown marginal declines visualised in the graph(s) below.
Underneath this figure lie varying fortunes. The chatter over the last few books has been around Newstalk and its Lazarus like transformation compared to earlier years. Comparing it to the 2013Q4 book Newstalk has seen is listenership increase by some 24% (+77,000) to leave it now at 392,000 (11%). Book on book it’s up a modest (relative to its twelve month performance) 4%.
| Station | 14Q4 | 13Q4 | +/- | +/-3 | c3 | ||||
| Any Radio | 84% | 3006 | 83% | 2972 | 1% | 34 | 1% | ||
| Region/Local/M-City | 58% | 2102 | 56% | 2023 | 2% | 79 | 4% | ||
| Any National | 46% | 1642 | 45% | 1632 | 1% | 10 | 1% | ||
| Home Local Station | 43% | 1534 | 41% | 1488 | 2% | 46 | 3% | ||
| Any RTE Radio | 34% | 1214 | 34% | 1232 | 0% | -18 | -1% | ||
| Any RTE1/2FM/Lyric | 33% | 1193 | 34% | 1214 | -1% | -21 | -2% | ||
| RTE Radio 1 | 23% | 836 | 24% | 849 | -1% | -13 | -2% | ||
| Today FM | 13% | 460 | 13% | 461 | 0% | -1 | 0% | ||
| Newstalk | 11% | 392 | 9% | 315 | 2% | 77 | 24% | ||
| RTE 2FM | 10% | 375 | 11% | 394 | -1% | -19 | -5% | ||
| Regional/Local | 8% | 278 | 7% | 264 | 1% | 14 | 5% | ||
| RTE Lyric FM | 4% | 137 | 4% | 127 | 0% | 10 | 8% | ||
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It’s got its stable mate Today FM firmly in its sights and is now only 68,000 listeners away from it compared to 146,000 this time last year. Given that it added 77,000 in the last twelve months you can do the speculative maths alone.
Radio1 had a 2% decline dropping 13,000 listeners and coming in at 836,000 or a 23% reach, which is still very healthy by any media standard. 2FM, on the other hand, dropped 19,000 or 5% to bring them in at 375,000 and slipping further away from Newstalk. It would be rude not to mention that book on book 2FM did add 3% – so perhaps in the more recent past things are looking better.
Today FM held their ground only dropping 1,000 listeners, but on a book on book basis they were down marginally by 3,000. Lyric performed well adding 8% bring them to 137,000 (4%) and Home Locals and the Regionals also gained some ground on twelve months back.
| 14Q4 | 14Q3 | 14Q2 | 14Q1 | 13Q4 | 13Q3 | |||||||
| Any Radio | 3006 | 84% | 2986 | 83% | 2982 | 83% | 2969 | 83% | 2972 | 83% | 2995 | 83% |
| Any National | 1642 | 46% | 1638 | 46% | 1641 | 46% | 1618 | 45% | 1632 | 45% | 1624 | 45% |
| Home Local Station | 1534 | 43% | 1501 | 42% | 1497 | 42% | 1491 | 42% | 1488 | 41% | 1523 | 42% |
| Any RTE Radio | 1214 | 34% | 1212 | 34% | 1216 | 34% | 1217 | 34% | 1232 | 34% | 1231 | 34% |
| RTE Radio 1 | 836 | 23% | 837 | 23% | 849 | 24% | 845 | 24% | 849 | 24% | 861 | 24% |
| Today FM | 460 | 13% | 463 | 13% | 458 | 13% | 442 | 12% | 461 | 13% | 457 | 13% |
| Newstalk | 392 | 11% | 376 | 10% | 365 | 10% | 334 | 9% | 315 | 9% | 294 | 8% |
| RTE 2FM | 375 | 10% | 366 | 10% | 366 | 10% | 376 | 10% | 394 | 11% | 384 | 11% |
| Regional/Local | 278 | 8% | 272 | 8% | 266 | 7% | 261 | 7% | 264 | 7% | 269 | 7% |
| RTE Lyric FM | 137 | 4% | 142 | 4% | 138 | 4% | 128 | 4% | 127 | 4% | 120 | 3% |
Shares
Turning to market shares where some of the losses/gains in overall listenership were reflected in the shares. RTE Radio, as a group, lost 2.4% points compared to the previous twelve months driven by Radio1 and 2FM who lost 1.9% and 0.8% respectively. Newstalk is up 1.6% points in the twelve months as were the regional stations, the only two benefactors in the share part of the national survey.
| Station | 14Q4 | 13Q3 | +/- |
| Any Radio | 100.0% | 100.0% | 0.0% |
| Any Region/Local/M-City | 54.3% | 53.0% | 1.3% |
| Any National | 45.7% | 47.0% | -1.3% |
| Home Local Station | 39.2% | 39.2% | 0.0% |
| Any RTE Radio | 30.6% | 33.0% | -2.4% |
| Any RTE1/2FM/Lyric | 29.9% | 32.4% | -2.5% |
| RTE Radio 1 | 21.5% | 23.4% | -1.9% |
| Today FM | 8.7% | 9.1% | -0.4% |
| RTE 2FM | 6.5% | 7.3% | -0.8% |
| Newstalk | 6.4% | 4.8% | 1.6% |
| Other Regional/Local Station | 5.0% | 4.9% | 0.1% |
| RTE Lyric FM | 1.9% | 1.7% | 0.2% |
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The graph above (stations only) shows the slow erosion of the Radio1 dominance, albeit still managing to maintain 13% points on its nearest rival Today FM. And also Newstalk just missing out on catching up on 2FM – but I’d guess that will change in this quarter.
Finally a courtesy look at the day parts for the different stations – which are explored elsewhere here in greater detail. Again the dominance of Radio1 in the morning and lunchtime is the only real story in the graphs. Also that Newstalk’s early in the morning has the edge on 2FM but then they relinquish that grip until George takes to the airwaves much later in the day.
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