Normally very little happens in the National scene and that follows through again this year. Radio listenership is up 56,000 and the gains can be attributed to a variety of sources. The National stations are up 46,000, the Regionals up 87,000 and the Locals up 52,000. Naturally there’s a lot of crossover there, but the sector is doing well.
RTE’s woes continued with 2FM shedding even more listeners and is now down to 409,000 and only 80,000 in the capital. Actually, Shannonside/Northern Sound has more listeners in total than 2FM does in the capital.
2FM are the only national station to decline and one of only seven stations in the survey to report a decline in listenership in the last twelve months.
Today FM put on the most listeners, gaining a very healthy 29,000 listeners and a percentage point. Their gains are in the morning between 8:00 and 12:00.
This was followed by Radio 1 adding 25,000 and Lyric adding 23,000. Because of it’s a small base that yearly increase is equivalent to a 22% increase in listeners – so it think it gets the ‘hat tip’ for this quarter.
Newstalk had a huge spike in their morning contributing to their 23,000 gain in comparison to the previous twelve months. It doesn’t up show that well in the average figure, but it’s quiet dramatic in the graph of the quarter hour segments. As the next few surveys roll out, it will be interesting to see how the departure of Ivan Yates plays out on the morning schedule.
RTE still completely dominates the sector, 35% of the population listening to one of their stations every day. Today FM is the largest independent station, but still has a lot of catching up to do in the national station.
Station | 12-1 ‘000 | 12-1 % | 11-1 ‘000 | 12-1 % | +/- | +/- |
Any Radio | 3059 | 85% | 3003 | 85% | 56 | 0% |
Any National | 1683 | 47% | 1637 | 47% | 46 | 0% |
Any RTE Radio | 1268 | 35% | 1249 | 36% | 19 | -1% |
Any RTE1/2FM/Lyric | 1250 | 35% | 1235 | 35% | 15 | 0% |
RTE Radio 1 | 897 | 25% | 872 | 25% | 25 | 0% |
RTE 2FM | 409 | 11% | 428 | 12% | -19 | -1% |
RTE Lyric FM | 132 | 4% | 108 | 3% | 24 | 1% |
Today Fm | 489 | 14% | 460 | 13% | 29 | 1% |
Newstalk | 305 | 8% | 282 | 8% | 23 | 0% |
Any Region/ | 2117 | 59% | 2030 | 58% | 87 | 1% |
Home Local Station | 1637 | 45% | 1585 | 45% | 52 | 0% |