The latest JNLR/Ipsos MRBI report into radio listening habits shows that some 84% of the adult population listen to a radio station on a daily basis. The latest batch of JNLR figures cover the 12-month period from April 2014 to March 2014 and the 84% is unchanged on the last book.
According to the figures some 46% of the population listen to a national station including the RTÉ stations, Today FM and Newstalk while 58% of those surveyed also claim to have listened to a regional/local or multi-city station.
In the various regional areas throughout the country, national radio holds the majority share position in Dublin (57.6%) and the wider Dublin Commuter belt (57.1%) while Local/regional radio is in the majority in the other regions throughout the country, in particular achieving its highest share position in the North West (63.0%), Cork (62.5%) and South West regions (60.0%).
Among the younger, 15-34 year old, audience throughout the country Local/regional radio is in the majority share position achieving a combined share of 65.1% versus 34.9% for National radio. In particular, the Local/regional group holds its strongest share position among this age segment in Dublin (72.2%), the Dublin Commuter region (70.4%) and in Cork (69.8%). Among at the older 35+ age segment, National radio holds a share of 49.8% of all minutes listened (+0.2%). However, in regional markets among this age group, National radio maintains a strong share position in Dublin (69.3%), the Dublin Commuter region (67.3%), and in the Multi-city area (56.3%). Local radio continues to be a strong performer in the individual radio markets across the country – in many areas reaching more than 40% of the local adult population daily. In particular, on the criterion of share of minutes listened during prime 7am to 7pm, Highland Radio, MWR and Radio Kerry hold the majority share position in their respective franchise areas.
As far as the individual stations are concerned it was the usual mix of ups and downs for some of the country’s top stations. At a national level RTÉ Radio 1 still dominates with a reduced 21.1% share of national weekday listening while RTÉ 2Fm, which still being compared to the RTÉ 2FM of five years ago when Gerry Ryan lorded the airwaves, saw a modest breakthrough with Ryan Tubridy gaining 12,000 listeners to hit 189,000 listeners while Nicky Byrne and Jenny Greene gained 10,000 to hit 150,000.
For its part, Newstalk’s national weekday share of listening continues to grow and is now 6.6%, up from 5.6% a year ago. In the all-important breakfast slot, the chirpy duo of Ivan Yates and Chris Donoghue gained an additional 7,000 listeners to end the book on 172,000 while their Montrose rivals in Morning Ireland shed 9,000 listeners to finish with 417,000. Morning Ireland, however, still remains the most listened-to programme on the airwaves by far. With the dust having well and truly settled on Pat Kenny’s controversial move to Newstalk, his figures have remained more or less static at 142,000 while Sean O’Rourke on RTÉ Radio 1 added 5,000 listeners to hit 303,000. Kenny’s Newstalk colleague George Hook, meanwhile, bounced back with 12,000 additional listeners to end with 138,000.
Over at the other Communicorp station, Today FM, its national share fell modestly to 8.6%. The big daily winner was the Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show which rose by 7,000 listeners to 194,000. Other strong daily performers have been the new Dermot & Dave Show (121,000 – an increase of 5,000). Teresanne O’Reilly in the Early Breakfast slot (21,000 – up 5,000) and Louise Duffy who added 2,000.
In Cork, Red FM was the big surprise with a 4% gain in its share of listening figures to close the book at 18.7% of the Cork market. This was largely at the expense of Cork’s 96FM which, with a share of 21%. For Red FM, this was a 120% increase in market share over the course 12 months.
Note: A full report on the latest JNLR Figures will be published in the May issue of IMJ
