Media & Marketing: The latest JNLR radio ratings reveal that RTÉ's two mainstream radio stations are losing market share to the competition. However, none of RTÉ's rivals come close to matching the mass market appeal of RTÉ's biggest stars.
JNLR July 2006-June 2007 is based on a survey of the listening habits of 15,000 adults. The radio sector generally has been doing very well in recent years, attracting increasing volumes of advertising. That is because 85 per cent of adults are listening to radio every day.
RTÉ Radio 1 is still by far the most popular station in the country, with an average quarter hour (AQH) audience during weekdays of 182,000.
That total is down 4 per cent on the audience recorded in the corresponding JNLR 2005/06.
Conor Hanover, broadcast director in media buyer Media Works, notes that Radio 1 introduced line-up changes in March 2007 and that the figures in the new research are largely made up of the listenership data before the changes were made.
All Radio 1 programmes, beginning at 5.30am with Risin Timeup to Drivetimewhich ends at 7pm, saw their AQH listenerships fall year-on-year, with the exception of Livelineand Mooney.
According to Hanover: "Radio 1 has seen some success already in the problem area of mid-afternoon. By extending the Joe Duffy Showand putting Derek Mooney in the 3-5pm slot, both segments have seen 13 per cent and 14 per cent increases year on year."
Radio 1's biggest crowd puller is Ryan Tubridy, with an AQH listenership of 267,000. This compares with 200,000 for Pat Kenny, 247,000 for Morning Ireland, 255,000 for the lunchtime news and 261,000 for Joe Duffy's Liveline.
At sister station 2FM, the only broadcaster who pulls in a comparable mass audience is Gerry Ryan, with an AQH audience of 200,000.
That's twice as big an audience as any other broadcaster on 2FM and helps explain why RTÉ recently signed a new five-year contract with Ryan, 18 years after the Gerry Ryan Showfirst aired.
Outside of RTÉ, the biggest radio star is Ray D'Arcy on Today FM, with an AQH audience of 151,000.
His colleague Ian Dempsey has an AQH figure of 119,000, compared with 78,000 for the Colm and Jim-Jim Breakfast Showon 2FM.
Hanover observed: "Colm and Jim-Jim were introduced in March 2007, but it is too early to gauge the effect that this will have had. This was another good book for Today FM, with an overall increase of 9 per cent."
Despite its success, Today FM still trails 2FM by an average of 5,000 listeners per quarter hour, although that average figure is hugely skewed by the Ryan factor.
A feature of the ratings figures is that Today FM is strongest where the competition is least intense.
According to Mediaworks, the station's weekday share of listenership in the capital is 7 per cent, compared with 20 per cent in Limerick, 18 per cent in Galway and 11 per cent in Cork.
One segment where Radio 1 underperforms relative to the rest of the schedule is evening drivetime.
Five Seven Live, anchored by Mary Wilson for the past year, saw its AQH audience decline by 26 per cent year on year to 86,000. Matt Cooper's Last Wordshow on Today FM is now level-pegging Five Seven Liveafter a gain of 10 per cent year-on-year.
Both shows have twice the audience of Newstalk's George Hook, whose AQH figure is 40,000. However, Martin Stenson, media buyer with Universal McCann, notes that in the Dublin market, George Hook has an AQH figure of 26,000, compared with 15,000 for Cooper and 35,000 for Wilson.
Fiona Scott at McConnells observes: "Today FM has not cracked Dublin and this is also true of drivetime. George Hook is outperforming Matt Cooper by some margin. This has not happened nationally yet, but it is a definite threat when you consider Newstalk's slow but steady growth in Dublin since launch. Local drivetime does best outside Leinster, which makes sense as Newstalk could be picked up in Leinster when it was a Dublin station."
At the local level, the most impressive performer is 96/103FM in Cork. Its average AQH audience grew 14 per cent year-on-year to 56,000 and the station now has market share of 53 per cent in its catchment area.
Considering that 98FM and FM104 in Dublin have average AQH figures of 31,000, the data suggests that maybe the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland should be looking to introduce a little more competition into the Munster market.
Local advertisers in Limerick get a lot of bang for their buck in Limerick too, with Limerick 95FM recording 45 per cent market share. Galway Bay's share of its local market is 33 per cent.
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