The capital’s fortunes changed in this survey following twelve successive surveys of either stagnation or decline with Dublin radio listenership gaining a point to 80% bringing listenership to 810,000 on an average weekday (67% and 60% on Saturday and Sunday respectively for the overly curious). But beneath that figure lies a tangles web of thirteen stations whose fortunes were varied over the year.
For illustrative purposes I’ve added a table this time around showing the all the stations results over the last four surveys as well as a year on year comparison. I stick with the year on year for comparative purposes but it can get a little confusing discussing the long and the short term surveys. Anyway it’s probably only fair to see the numbers laid bare to spot any emerging trends.
Not unlike the National picture Newstalk made the big gains adding 23% to their listeners bring them to 150,000 and helps it to root itself firmly into third spot after RTE1 and FM104. Newstalk performs well in the metropolis with just under half their listeners turning in from Dublin. (Interestingly Radio1, Lyric and Newstalk have each 41% of their total listenership residing in Dublin. On the other hand 2FM is only boosted by 19% and Today FM by 18% by the Blues listenership).
Year on year RTE1 is down slightly to 278,000 but, as you can see from the graphs below, they are on an upward trajectory. FM014, Spin and Q102 all lost listeners over the twelve months, but on a survey on survey basis the picture wasn’t so bleak. Nova, Lyric, Classic Hits and Sunshine all had some great gains (albeit on a small base) and would seem to be eating away at some of the larger stations survey after survey.
14Q2 | 13Q2 | +/- | +/- | |||
Any Radio | 810 | 80% | 817 | 81% | -7 | -1% |
RTE Radio 1 | 278 | 27% | 284 | 28% | -6 | -2% |
FM 104 | 185 | 18% | 225 | 22% | -40 | -18% |
Newstalk | 150 | 15% | 122 | 12% | 28 | 23% |
Spin 1038 | 136 | 13% | 131 | 13% | 5 | 4% |
98FM | 101 | 9% | 87 | 9% | 14 | 16% |
Q102 | 91 | 9% | 95 | 9% | -4 | -4% |
Today FM | 81 | 8% | 76 | 7% | 5 | 7% |
RTE 2FM | 70 | 7% | 66 | 7% | 4 | 6% |
RTE Lyric FM | 57 | 6% | 43 | 4% | 14 | 33% |
Radio Nova 100FM | 55 | 5% | 43 | 4% | 12 | 28% |
Classic Hits 4FM | 36 | 4% | 25 | 2% | 11 | 44% |
Sunshine 106.8 | 35 | 3% | 29 | 3% | 6 | 21% |
Phantom 105.2FM | 18 | 2% | 17 | 2% | 1 | 6% |
Top slot still goes to RTE1 who hold a dominant position at 278,000 listeners (27%) and are perused by FM104 at 185,000 (18%) having lost 40,000 listeners over the year. They in turn are being chased down by Newstalk on 150,000 (15%) who have narrowed the gap between them to 35,000. Not that their fighting for the same cohort of listener but the prize of second spot is very much up for grabs in Dublin. Today FM stabilised in the capital on 81,000 (8%) after successive surveys of either decline or small to no gains.
13Q3 | 13Q4 | 14Q1 | 14Q2 | |||||
Any Radio | 809 | 80% | 803 | 79% | 804 | 79% | 810 | 80% |
Any Region/Loc/M-C/D-C | 472 | 47% | 452 | 45% | 459 | 45% | 469 | 46% |
RTE Radio 1 | 286 | 28% | 286 | 28% | 275 | 27% | 278 | 27% |
FM 104 | 207 | 20% | 196 | 19% | 194 | 19% | 185 | 18% |
Newstalk | 122 | 12% | 128 | 13% | 137 | 14% | 150 | 15% |
Spin 1038 | 135 | 13% | 127 | 13% | 129 | 13% | 136 | 13% |
98FM | 81 | 8% | 85 | 8% | 88 | 9% | 101 | 9% |
Q102 | 97 | 10% | 87 | 9% | 89 | 9% | 91 | 9% |
Today FM | 77 | 8% | 81 | 8% | 74 | 7% | 81 | 8% |
RTE 2FM | 66 | 7% | 72 | 7% | 71 | 7% | 70 | 7% |
RTE Lyric FM | 49 | 5% | 55 | 5% | 54 | 5% | 57 | 6% |
Radio Nova 100FM | 47 | 5% | 50 | 5% | 59 | 5% | 55 | 5% |
Classic Hits 4FM | 29 | 3% | 31 | 3% | 32 | 3% | 36 | 4% |
Sunshine 106.8 | 30 | 3% | 33 | 3% | 34 | 3% | 35 | 3% |
TXFM | 17 | 2% | 15 | 1% | 15 | 1% | 18 | 2% |
For a “holistic” view of the Dublin market you can cycle through the graphic tabs below which show the total radio reach and then the individual stations by their reach in thousands and percentage reach. If nothing else it clearly shows the rise of Newstalk on the back of signing Pat Kenny.
[module-289]
Market Shares
Dublin market share is dominated by RTE1 at 34.1% with a twenty two point gap between it and FM104. Newstalk made good gains adding two points to a 9.7% share. Q102, Spin and Today were all down as was 98FM. Nova, Lyric, Sunshine and Classic Hits also gaining ground.
Station | 14Q2 | 13Q2 | +/- |
RTE Radio 1 | 33.40% | 33.60% | -0.20% |
FM104 | 11.60% | 14.10% | -2.50% |
Newstalk | 10.00% | 8.20% | 1.80% |
Spin 1038 | 7.10% | 7.10% | 0.00% |
Q102 | 6.90% | 8.60% | -1.70% |
Today FM | 6.10% | 5.70% | 0.40% |
98FM | 5.90% | 5.90% | 0.00% |
RTE 2FM | 4.90% | 5.20% | -0.30% |
Nova 100FM | 3.90% | 3.70% | 0.20% |
RTE Lyric FM | 3.20% | 2.20% | 1.00% |
Sunshine 106.8 | 2.50% | 2.50% | 0.00% |
Classic Hits 4FM | 2.30% | 1.90% | 0.40% |
TXFM | 1.30% | 0.90% | 0.40% |
Other | 0.80% | 0.30% | 0.50% |
The only way to look at the shares are two fold: Dublin in full and then ex-RTE so you can see what’s happening more clearly without the dominance of the national station.
[module-294]
Within any reach figure there’s a story. It’s the one behind the scenes and hopefully the graphs below capture some of what’s happening. Like above, with thirteen stations it’s a tangled mess so I’ve divided it into Dublin “A” and “B” to give you, hopefully, a clearer picture. Each line tells its own story but something that struck me was the Newstalk journey throughout the day (among others).
Breakfast has a huge spike just after eight and then dies off rapidly only to be resuscitated at ten by Pat Kenny. There’s a odd undulating pattern to his listenership with people diving in and out seemingly. Then at the stroke of twelve all hell breaks out and there seems to be mass defection – but not to another station by the looks of things. I’ve looked at these patterns nationally as well and they can be found in the Station Programmes bit.
[module-290]
At his point I’m beginning to hear the lyric in The Smiths What Difference Does It Make? – “Oh, the devil will find work for idle hands to do”! But, before I descend to my fiery pit, below I have shown how each station has performed against previous surveys across the day (14Q2 V 13Q2 and 12Q2). For consistence and to be able to digest it quickly: the red line is always current survey, blue ’13 and green ’12. I’ll refrain from comment as that level of detail would be too much and each will have their own opinion (which you can share with the group below if you are part of the Disqus Comment family).
[module-291]
Honest – finally; I just thought this paints a interesting picture in Dublin