JNLR 2013 Q3 Dublin Listenership

Overall listenership in Dublin dropped marginally by 8,000 to 809,000 and a reach of 80%. The Dublin landscape is very interesting and changeable each survey. Again the caveat here is certainly to take into account the comparison between surveys, but also to look at the bigger picture of where a station is trending over a few surveys. RTE1 dominates the Dublin listenership with 286,000 listeners and a 28% reach. Its closest rival is FM104 at 207,000 (20%) down 19,000 on the same survey last year. Spin is a distant third at 13% or 135,000 back 23,000 on 2012 Q3 and 98FM

JNLR 2013 Q3 Station Programmes

Here we take a look at the individual stations and how their programmes compare to the same survey last year. This comparison is the twelve months to September 2013 compared to the twelve months to September 2012. So in other quarters you’ll find a slight difference in the performance of the programmes as they will be comparing this survey to, most likely, the previous one (2012 Q2) so take note! [module-205]

JNLR 2013 Q3 Top 30

This is the portion of the report that seems to get the most attention in the media, especially the print media. It’s how the individual programmes performed in the survey in comparison to last year’s numbers.We have (in the spirit of Top of the Pops!) two new entrants with Dave Fanning and Today FM Saturday Sport joining the top 30. The biggest faller was The Business dropping 24,000 and Tubridy dropping 23,000. RTE Saturday Sport was the biggest winner but the times are marginally different this year, the show being half an hour longer. Morning Ireland is still the most

JNLR 2013 Q3 Local Stations

Normally, nothing really changes in the local franchises, a percent here or there dictates the headlines in most surveys. But there have been some seismic changes to a few of the stations figures, and not in a positive fashion. Tipp FM’s reach dropped twelve points to 38% from 50%. Likewise Galway Bay moved to 36% from 45% down nine points.  The root cause of those rather sharp drops are best explained locally, but I’m sure that a stewards enquiry will be taking place.     Local Q3 Reach % Franchise 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 YoY Highland Radio  Nth Donegal

Pat Kenny moves to Newstalk

The defection of Pat Kenny to Newstalk was a broadside, to say the least. The full impact of the move will only be felt perhaps in six months when the JNLR begins to pick up the possible defectors. I will leave the would-be programme directors to speculate as to who will fill the void in the morning and how the new format will look. But, let’s ponder the numerics of the move on a few different levels.   Firstly the current state of play shows that Pat outstrips its rivals in the morning slot. I’ve added the times of each

JNLR 2013_2 Top 30

Looking at the top thirty programmes only six slots are taken up by an non RTE programmes. The biggest ‘independent’ programme is Ray D’Arcy at 235,000 followed by Ian Dempsey in at 168,000 listeners.   Morning Ireland managed to put a bit of daylight over Joe Duffy by adding 6,000 while Joe dropped 7,000 – the gap now stands at 29,000.  Marian Finucane’s shows on Saturday and Sunday dropped 12,000 and 13,000 respectively.  Actually the morning slots on RTE1 on both days seem to be losing ground to elsewhere. The rest of the figures you can pick the bones out

National Stations Listeners JNLR 2013_2

The national picture shows how the individual stations have done in the twelve months. Across the board the national stations have all dropped in the comparable twelve months. The three taxpayer funded stations dropped 50,000 in total and now have a combined reach of 34%, down one point. 2FM is showing a 29,000 decrease year on year, but, to be fair, if you look at the quarterly charts below you’ll see that it’s a slight improvement book on book and all comparisons here are twelve months to twelve months – not book on book. In percentage terms Lyric took the

JNLR 2013_2 Dublin Radio Listnership

Total Dublin listenership dipped very marginally from 819,000 to 817,000 and this last figure represents 81% of the capital tuning into radio on a daily basis. The dominant station in the capital is RTE1 with a 28% reach down slightly from last year. Still making inroads into that figure is FM104 in second place at a 22% reach or 225,000 people. From there is a bit of a gap to third with Spin 1038 at 131,000 having dropped 18% year on year. Lyric and Nova both suffered large falls in this survey losing 33% and 23% respectively. However, they are

JNLR 2013_2 Radio Listening

The latest JNLR release for the twelve months to June 2013 show that radio, in the main, is still in a very healthy position. It reaches over three million people every day which is equivalent to 84% of the population. This is down 1% or 44,000 on the same twelve months to June 2012. The figure of “National Radio” stands at 45% reach or 1,619,000 adults but this is a fall of two points or 80,000 listeners in the last twelve months. Local regional stations still outshine the nationals reaching 58% of the population or just over two million listeners.

JNLR 2013_2 Local Radio

Local radio shows only small changes and, still, Highland Radio holds top spot. No station made substantial gains but, conversely, Galway Bay was a big faller down 17,000 and 7% followed by Shannon Side down 12,000 and 5%.  In Cork there was a very good gain for 96FM adding 29,000 listeners or 7%.

JNLR 2013_1 Local Stations

Local stations remained fairly static year on year with the biggest gain coming from Ocean FM gaining 4% or 3,000 listeners. Galway Bay also gained adding 3,000 listeners to 84,000. Out of the sixteen franchises there were four gains, two static and ten fallers. So the overall momentum for the local stations would seem to be downward. The Shannonside/Northern Sound was the biggest faller at a decline of 6% or 11,000 to 82,000. Highland still retains the biggest reach in its franchise at 67% followed by Mayo’s Mid West at 60% 

JNLR 2013_1 Dublin Stations

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

JNLR 2013_1 National Listnership Programmes

Now we can take a look at the individual stations by programme and through a comparison of their quarter hours segments to see how they stack up against each other. The programme blocks are as they are currently. So in a few cases, there would have been a change in scheduling over the year, so the programme listed is being compared to a different programme or DJ. Also in a few places there may have been a shift in the time allocated to a programme block. Where these occur (and I can bring them to mind!) I’ll point it out.

JNLR 2013_1 Top 30 Programmes

The top listened to programmes show some big moves from the same period as last year last. This time round Breakfast with Hector nudged into #29 slot and Newstalk’s Breakfast have to give way to it. Morning Ireland is still the most listened programme on the airwaves reaching 433,000 people every day. Joe Duffy is now breathing down their necks only 19,000 behind at 424,000 and News at One draws 369,000 every day. But the big changes were in the RTE1 weekend slots. Marion Finucane’s Sunday show lost 73,000 listeners over the year and moved that programme from #4 to #9.

JNLR 2013_1 National Stations

Looking that the national picture and how the individual stations have done, it shows that all of the stations in the survey have lost listeners in comparison to last year. The Donnybrook stable, which has the most to lose in the first place, have had the sharpest declines. RTE1 falling 34,000, 2FM dropped 30,000 listeners or 7% and Lyric, which was the worst performing station on the national stage, dropped 16,000 or 12%. As an individual station, RTE1 still retains the top slot reaching 24% or 863,000 people every day, but you have to take notice that 44% or 1.5m

JNLR 2013_1 Radio Listnership

The latest JNLR survey, the twelve months to March 2013, show that radio listenership has slipped very slightly. It fell back by 36,000 listeners compared to the same twelve months to March in 2012. It’s a marginal decrease of 1% but still leaves radio’s reach at a healthy 84% of the population, the same percentage point as last year.

JNLR 2013_2 Station Programmes

Here’s a look at the individual stations but focussing on their main weekday programmes. There are a few items to note in this exercise before we come to any firm conclusions. I’m at pains to point out the differences in analysis here and elsewhere. I look at the twelve months to March 2013 and they are compared to the twelve months to March 2012 – a year on year comparison. In many quarters, actually nearly all others, the comparison would be made between the twelve months to March 2013 and the twelve months to December 2012. This would be a

Off the Ball Resignations

The Off the Ball saga that played out last night both on radio and across certain sections of Twitter was very amusing and particular users of the social media service were very vocal is their condemnation of the stance that Newstalk had taken. If you remove the emotion and replace it with the economics behind the programme, maybe it’s not such a ‘deplorable’ act.  The five man team of OtB resigned en masse on Monday and sought to work out eight weeks notice. The station took another view on this, accepted their resignations but decided that they would not have

JNLR 2012 Q4 National Radio Listenership

You couldn’t say that that, at a reach of 84% of the population, there was any real cause for alarm. But the radio picture does seem to have a particular trend to it. Perhaps, like other media, there is a touch of fragmentation happening and that more attention and listening minutes is on the digital landscape. 

JNLR 2012 Q4 Dublin Radio Listenership

Dubliners have thirteen stations to choose from so it’s a very busy parish to be plying your trade in. Not unlike the national picture, the dominant player is RTE1 having a reach of 27% and 274,000 listeners on average every day. Their dominance has been severely eroded over the past few surveys and they are down 24,000 listeners and five percentage points over the same period last year. Actually, their high point in Dublin was at the very start of this year and they have been dropping each subsequent survey – down 17,000 on the last quarter (Q3) for example.