Turning to the capital and it shows that 85% of its inhabitants or 863,000 people tune in to radio each day.
The biggest draw is RTE1 reaching 277,000 or 27% followed by FM104 with 220,000 which makes the gap 57,000 listeners ever day.
It was a fairly static affair over the past twelve months with most staying loyal to their stations.
The biggest faller over the year was 98FM which dropped 12,000 listeners or 11% of it listenership. Spin lost 3% and Q102 dropped 8,000 or 8%.
The Sunshine percentage drop looks fairly bad, but it’s coming from a very low base in the first place.
|
Station |
13_1 |
13_12 |
12_1 |
12_12 |
+/- % |
+/- |
|
|
RTE Radio 1 |
277 |
27% |
274 |
27% |
0% |
3 |
1% |
|
FM 104 |
220 |
22% |
222 |
22% |
0% |
-2 |
-1% |
|
Spin 1038 |
142 |
14% |
146 |
14% |
0% |
-4 |
-3% |
|
Newstalk |
120 |
12% |
120 |
12% |
0% |
0 |
0% |
|
Q102 |
98 |
10% |
106 |
11% |
-1% |
-8 |
-8% |
|
98FM |
97 |
10% |
109 |
10% |
0% |
-12 |
-11% |
|
Today FM |
77 |
8% |
77 |
8% |
0% |
0 |
0% |
|
RTE 2FM |
65 |
6% |
62 |
6% |
0% |
3 |
5% |
|
Radio Nova 100FM |
47 |
5% |
44 |
4% |
1% |
3 |
7% |
|
RTE Lyric FM |
45 |
4% |
45 |
4% |
0% |
0 |
0% |
|
Sunshine 106.8 |
26 |
3% |
30 |
3% |
0% |
-4 |
-13% |
|
Classic Hits 4FM |
25 |
2% |
24 |
2% |
0% |
1 |
4% |
|
Phantom 105.2FM |
18 |
2% |
16 |
2% |
0% |
2 |
13% |
The reach graphs show gaps narrowing between FM104 and RTE1 in the Dublin, but also the gap developing between those two stations and the rest of the group.
On the other hand, nobody made any spectacular gains – Nova gained a percentage point bringing them back to 5% where they were a few surveys back. Same numbers again except expressed a percentage reach.
Shares
The real fight in Dublin is for share and, for the fifth successive quarter, FM104 have managed to increase theirs. I produced two share graphs as it’s only fair to show the dominance of RTE1 in the capital. But then by removing RTE1 from the picture you can see the real scrap underneath. Maintaining share was an issue for Today FM and more so for 98FM dropping 2.3 points.
|
Station |
13_1 |
12_1 |
+/- |
|
RTE Radio 1 |
32.90% |
32.00% |
0.90% |
|
FM104 |
14.50% |
11.40% |
3.10% |
|
Q102 |
8.70% |
9.20% |
-0.50% |
|
98FM |
6.40% |
8.70% |
-2.30% |
|
Spin 1038 |
7.80% |
6.80% |
1.00% |
|
Newstalk |
7.80% |
7.80% |
0.00% |
|
Today FM |
5.90% |
6.90% |
-1.00% |
|
RTE 2FM |
4.70% |
5.50% |
-0.80% |
|
RTE Lyric FM |
2.50% |
3.20% |
-0.70% |
|
Radio Nova 100FM |
3.50% |
3.30% |
0.20% |
|
Sunshine 106.8 |
2.10% |
2.40% |
-0.30% |
|
Classic Hits 4FM |
1.60% |
1.20% |
0.40% |
|
Phantom 105.2FM |
0.90% |
0.80% |
0.10% |
|
Other Regional |
0.30% |
0.60% |
-0.30% |
Q102 would be FM104’s closest rival, but they are still nearly six percentage points adrift of FM104 in share. That being said, RTE1 are still eighteen percentage points ahead of FM104’s share in the capital.
Dublin by the hour
Finally a brief look at Dublin by the hour. Again it’s best to look again at the figures without the dominance of RTE1.
But on the graph where it is included, there is an interesting swapping of positions from the National picture. Nationally RTE1’s highest point, in a single quarter hour, is just before two-o-clock at the start of Joe Duffy. But interestingly in Dublin RTE1’s peak is during Morning Ireland and then tails off only to spike again during Joe Duffy.
FM104 takes the day by the neck and keeps a hold of it! It’s not until after six that it’s beaten by any station. Spin makes some gains after lunch – when its listeners get out of bed no doubt and 98FM literally drifts at the same pace throughout the day. One wonders if moving Ray Foley into the morning slot was an attempt to try and grab some of the all important listeners at breakfast.
Newstalk’s high point in Dublin is during Breakfast, but George Hook certainly brings them back again for 4:30 and onward. Today competes well at breakfast, again during Ray Darcy and has a final surge during Matt Cooper.
