In the Capital, the radio waves are pretty crowded with twelve stations, not including any spill-over or community based stations. Radio reaches 85% of the capitals citizens or 837,000 people every day (average listened yesterday).
The National Broadcaster dominates, reaching 38% of the population in some form or another. RTE1 reaches 30% (292,000) of the market, up 1% on the previous twelve months.
Like its showing in the national market, 2FM struggled in the City as well, dropping to a 10% reach and, in comparison to previous books a paltry 92,000 listeners every day. Two years ago, in the 2009 report, 2FM reached 18% of the capitals’ population or 180,000 listeners.
| 2011 | 2010 | +/- | +/- | |||||
| Any Radio | 837 | 87% | 837 | 85% | 0 | -2% | ||
| Any National | 460 | 48% | 475 | 49% | -15 | -1% | ||
| Any RTE Radio | 368 | 38% | 379 | 39% | -11 | -1% | ||
| RTE1/2FM/Lyric | 368 | 38% | 377 | 39% | -9 | -1% | ||
| RTE Radio 1 | 292 | 30% | 284 | 29% | 8 | 1% | ||
| FM 104 | 195 | 20% | 187 | 19% | 8 | 1% | ||
| Spin 1038 | 147 | 15% | 131 | 13% | 16 | 2% | ||
| Q102 | 134 | 14% | 119 | 12% | 15 | 2% | ||
| 98FM | 125 | 13% | 147 | 15% | -22 | -2% | ||
| Newstalk | 112 | 12% | 97 | 10% | 15 | 2% | ||
| RTE 2 FM | 92 | 10% | 114 | 12% | -22 | -2% | ||
| Today FM | 88 | 9% | 94 | 10% | -6 | -1% | ||
| RTE Lyric FM | 50 | 5% | 53 | 5% | -3 | 0% | ||
| Sunshine 106.8 | 32 | 3% | 36 | 4% | -4 | -1% | ||
| 4FM | 20 | 2% | 20 | 2% | 0 | 0% | ||
| Phantom 105.2FM | 19 | 2% | 32 | 3% | -13 | -1% |
FM104 still is the biggest independent station and by a good stretch tapping into 20% (195,000) of the capitals population every day. This is followed by Spin1038 on 147,000 listeners. It’s the next portion of the table that’s the most interesting this time out. Q102 has, for the first time overtaken 98FM. While Q102 put on 15,000 listeners, 98Fm dropped 22,000.
That puts 98FM in territory it hasn’t been in before and, if the trends continue, they could be overtaken by Newstalk in the next quarter.
At this point it looks like Today FM finds the bulk of its following outside the capital. It has a heavier rural bias than most stations and is reflected in this survey. Newstalk put on 15,000 accounting for its rise nationally.
The other stations had minor losses – bar one – Phantom. Its dictionary definition is all too close to the bone at this point “Something apparently seen, heard, or sensed, but having no physical reality”. How long will it be, before that is in fact the reality.
But here’s the “real” story and it’s in the market shares. The share is the amount of minutes each station is listened to every day. Some stations may have a small reach, but because they are listened to for longer periods the might have a larger market share. These shares below are based on weekday seven to seven.
RTE1 dominates the share by a considerable margin. But the bun fight after that position is something else.
Q102 not only added listeners, but listeners who also tuned in for longer. This pushed their share up to 11.1% gifting them #3 and only three decimal places away from second placed FM104.
Also in that battle 98FM lost two places dropping from the coveted second place behind RTE1 into fourth place behind the rising Q102.
|
2011 |
# |
2010 |
# |
|
|
RTE Radio 1 |
32.2% |
1 |
31.8% |
1 |
|
FM 104 |
11.4% |
2 |
10.5% |
3 |
|
Q102 |
11.1% |
3 |
9.4% |
4 |
|
98FM |
9.0% |
4 |
11.6% |
2 |
|
RTE 2 FM |
6.6% |
5 |
8.1% |
5 |
|
Spin 1038 |
6.5% |
6 |
6.0% |
7 |
|
Newstalk |
6.4% |
7 |
6.0% |
7 |
|
Today FM |
6.1% |
8 |
6.6% |
6 |
|
RTE Lyric FM |
3.3% |
9 |
2.9% |
10 |
|
Sunshine 106.8 |
2.9% |
10 |
3.0% |
9 |
|
4FM |
1.3% |
11 |
1.4% |
12 |
|
Phantom 105.2FM |
0.7% |
12 |
1.5% |
11 |
So, not a good day in the office for 98 all around but a very good one for Q102.
