28May
Time for the quarterly RAJAR figures, this time covering the twelve weeks to 31 March 2007. Of particular reference are the figures for the fourth quarter of 2006 and the equivalent last year.
In each case, the figures are a weighted average of the most recent quarter's figure, and the middle three of the previous five quarters. This gives a trend figure based on a central one-year sample drawn from the past eighteen months, much more stable than the individual quarters.
Share (in the regional tables) is the percentage of listeners who heard the station.
Hours is the average listening figure per person in the area, whether they listened or not.
Changes are on the last quarter's figures.
National stations
Assumed national audience: 49,663,000.
| BBC national stations | ||
|---|---|---|
| Station | Audience | Hours |
| Radio 1 | 10382 (+55) | 2h04 (+1) |
| Radio 2 | 13179 (+98) | 3h21 (-1) |
| Radio 3 | 1982 (-42) | 0h16 |
| Radio 4 | 9397 (+43) | 2h29 (+1) |
| Radio 5 | 5875 (-44) | 0h55 (-2) |
| 6Music | 393 (+30) | 0h03 (+1) |
| BBC7 | 692 (+46) | 0h04 |
| World Service | 1316 (+8) | 0h09 |
| Asian Network | 451 (-10) | 0h04 |
| Analogue national stations | ||
| Station | Audience | Hours |
| Choice | 615 (-9) | 0h06 |
| Classic FM | 5879 (+47) | 0h54 |
| Galaxy | 2544 (-23) | 0h23 |
| Kiss | 2590 (+101) | 0h17 (+1) |
| LBC | 740 (+11) | 0h10 (-1) |
| Magic | 3095 (+55) | 0h27 |
| Smooth | 1449 (+44) | 0h12 |
| Sunrise | 463 (-9) | 0h04 |
| Talk Sport | 2244 (+58) | 0h23 |
| Virgin 1215 | 1776 (+2) | 0h12 |
| Xfm | 1108 (**) | 0h09 (**) |
| Digital national stations | ||
| Station | Audience | Hours |
| Arrow | 77 (+3) | 0h01 |
| Capital Disney | 59 (+4) | 0h00 |
| Chill | * | * |
| Core | 115 (+3) | 0h00 |
| Heat | 250 (-4) | 0h01 |
| Hits | 1089 (+49) | 0h05 (+1) |
| Life | 75 (-4) | 0h00 (-1) |
| Oneword | 131 (+2) | 0h01 |
| Planet Rock | 440 (+39) | 0h03 |
| Q | 325 (-15) | 0h01 |
| Smash Hits | 741 (-8) | 0h03 |
* Chill has only four quarters of data, reporting 148,000 listeners and 1 minute.
** Xfm figures are not comparable with the previous quarter, following the inclusion of Xfm Scotland from 06/Q1. Proper comparisons will be unavailable until 07/Q2 to Q3, published in October 2007.
3C ceased transmission in late March; its final results have not been included in the RAJAR figures.
No tremendous change in the BBC nationals, Radio 1 now has a full year above 10 million, but Radio 3 is back below 2 million; it will be interesting to see if other listeners share our opinion about the February changes. 6 Music and BBC7 take good rises, similar to those seen in 05/Q1 after a great uptake of DAB sets. We're not reading too much into the sudden decline in Asian Network, the station never polls consistently.
In the commercial sector, Q and Smash Hits have recovered a little of last quarter's devastating losses. Life loses its minute of listening, and we can see why Capital Disney is closing. LBC's national rollout has boosted audiences and hours by 10% for a second straight quarter. Kiss makes a third consecutive quarter around 2.75m listeners, and that boosts the average. Classic FM will be cheered to move ahead of Radio 5 on listeners, though it's just behind on hours.
| BBC local stations | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Station | Coverage | Share | Hours |
| CWR | 638 | 13.6% (n/c) | 1h14 (-6) |
| Gloucestershire | 472 | 19.3% (+0.4) | 2h26 (+4) |
| Hereford and Worcester | 508 | 25.7% (+0.2) | 2h51 (-4) |
| Leicester | 756 | 21.4% (+0.5) | 2h02 (-9) |
| Oxford | 507 | 17.3% (+0.6) | 1h45 (+2) |
| Shropshire | 372 | 28.9% (-0.6) | 3h35 (-5) |
| WM | 2182 | 14.9% (+0.1) | 1h38 (-6) |
| Regional stations | |||
| Station | Coverage | Share | Hours |
| Heart (WM) | 3477 | 23.2% (-0.3) | 2h13 (-1) |
| Saga (WM) | 3477 | 11.9% (+0.3) | 1h31 (+5) |
| Kerrang | 3480 | 10.6% (-0.1) | 0h43 (-3) |
| Heart (EM) | 2031 | 16.0% (-0.2) | 1h17 (-6) |
| Saga (EM) | 2024 | 11.6% (+0.1) | 1h10 (-3) |
| Heritage local stations | |||
| Station | Coverage | Share | Hours |
| BRMB | 2026 | 24.0% (-0.3) | 1h50 |
| Beacon | 1287 | 20.3% (+0.2) | 1h42 (+1) |
| Mercia | 661 | 23.5% (-0.7) | 1h47 (-4) |
| Wyvern | 479 | 19.8% (-0.4) | 1h33 (-1) |
| FOX | 573 | 30.5% (-0.1) | 2h46 (-11) |
| Galaxy (WM) | 2022 | 16.3% (-0.1) | 1h20 (+3) |
| Small-scale local stations | |||
| Station | Coverage | Share | Hours |
| Wolf | 424 | 12.3% (-0.8) | 0h53 (-5) |
| Bear / Kix / Banbury | 599 | 15.5% (-1.4) | 1h26 |
| Fosseway | 146 | 17.5% (-0.4) | 1h17 (-6) |
| Centre | 235 | 14.8% (-1.0) | 1h19 (+3) |
| Rugby | 69 | 37.9% (-1.5) | 3h32 (-14) |
| Heritage AM local stations | |||
| Station | Coverage | Share | Hours |
| Xtra-AM | 2026 | 2.9% (-0.2) | 0h16 (-2) |
| Mercia AM | 661 | 4.3% (-0.5) | 0h27 (-2) |
| WABC | 1287 | 2.7% (+0.1) | 0h15 (-1) |
The Asian Network is no longer split out into its analogue and digital components. Leicester and Oxford both recover from falls last quarter, Shropshire takes one of its own.
Saga bows out with the traditional 12% share in both WM and EM, but Heart WM is consistently down by almost 500,000 listeners on a year earlier. Kerrang! records its worst quarter in six, suggesting that the ceiling is 10%. EMAP makes its money by syndicating local content on DAB across the UK, albeit in unsatisfyingly crap mono.
Amongst the GWR/Capital stations, the trend is still down; Mercia and Wyvern fail to recover from their falls last week. Even worse is the performance of Kix, The Bear, and Centre; now all called Touch, the stations have consistently lost share, culminating in a 1.4% drop for Kix/Bear as the last honest quarter drops out. The group's station in Rugby has lost 3% and 30 minutes since the start of 2005. The AM stations remain a waste of space.
Since these figures were published, GMG has re-named the Saga stations to Smooth; we will retrospectively aggregate Saga WM, EM, and Central Scotland with Smooth's existing stations in London and the NW, with effect from the Q2 publication in August.
The next RAJAR day is 2 August; expect analysis later that month.
