Listenership of Irish radio continues to remain strong across the board with 90% of Irish adults and 86% of 15-35 year olds listening to radio every week according to the latest JNLR report carried out by Ipsos B&A.
The JNLR report also notes that daily listenership levels are equally strong with the daily weekday audience now at over 3.4m, growing by 69,000 listeners compared to the previous survey covering the period Apr ‘23-Mar ‘24.
According to the JNLR, listenership for 15–34 year-olds also increased, with 69% of this age group listening every weekday, while daily weekday listening levels for 15-24 year olds is at 64%. Listening levels to local and regional radio continues to be very strong, according to the report, with over 2.2m adults listening to their local or regional station every single weekday.
The latest JNLR shows that the average adult is listening to radio content for 4.1 hours each day. And the latest Irish Audio Report, recently published by Ipsos B&A, which looks at total audio listening, shows that live radio dominates with a 74% share of total listening. Music streaming has a 12% share of listening while YouTube Music and Podcasts have a 7% and 3% share respectively.
“It is clear that radio listening is booming in Ireland and today’s figures are a great reminder that Irish radio is a central part of people’s lives with brilliant content being consumed by millions of listeners every single day,” says Ciaran Cunningham, CEO of Radiocentre Ireland.
“All parts of the Irish population, from young to old are listening to radio in huge numbers because it is a key part of Irish daily life. Advertisers recognise the power of the medium with the latest Radiocentre Ireland revenue figures showing that for the January to June period, revenue to Irish radio operators came to €77.9 million, up 2% on the same period last year.”
For the both the commercial radio sector and RTÉ the latest JNLR book unearthed some strong performances from various broadcasters and individual programmes. Some of the highlights are outlined below.
RTÉ
The latest JNLR shows that over 2m adults, or 48% of the adult population listen to an RTÉ station every week. It also shows that RTÉ shows continue to dominate with 17 of the top 20 radio programmes in Ireland coming from the Montrose stable with RTÉ Radio 1 remains the only station with a weekly reach of over 1m listeners, an increase of 31,000 year-on-year.
For its part, RTÉ 2FM’s weekly reach was up 94,000 to 791,000 over the same period while RTÉ lyric fm had 335,000 listeners, a 37,000 increase year-on-year.
For RTÉ, the big news was there is life after Ryan Tubridy with Oliver Callan’s audience between 9am and 10am climbing to 336,000, 2,000 higher than the listenership Tubridy had in the previous year.
Once again, Morning Ireland remains the most listened-to radio programme in Ireland with 486,000 listeners, up by 46,000 year-on-year.
Tara Campbell, Managing Editor of RTÉ Radio 1, said: “This is a strong book for RTÉ Radio 1 with the range of content produced by our creative and hard-working programme teams resonating with audiences across news and current affairs, sport, entertainment, music and culture,” says Tara Campbell, managing editor, RTÉ Radio 1.
“ As the only station with a weekly reach of over one million listeners we’re particularly proud of the loyalty of our audiences and the trust they place in our talented presenters and in our output. Our listeners remain at the forefront of everything we do.”
Bauer Media Audio Ireland
As the largest player in the commercial broadcasting sector, the latest JNLR book was a strong one for the broadcaster which has a portfolio of national, regional and local stations including Today FM, Newstalk, 98FM, SPIN 1038, SPIN South West, Cork’s Red FM, iRadio and more recently Beat 102 103.
According to the JNLR, its stations combined had a record weekly audience of almost 2.3m listeners with daily listenership standing at 1.5m.
Bauer’s station portfolio now has an all-adults prime-time market share of 29%, rising to 43.5% of 25-44 year olds.
At a national level, Newstalk once again recorded strong growth with its highest market share across the day time schedule of 8.9%, a slight increase of 0.7%.
The JNLR shows that Newstalk now has 869,000 listeners tuning in each week, an increase of 18,000 book-on-book, with a daily reach of 514,000, a jump of 25,000 listeners since the last JNLR survey.
The Pat Kenny Show, was the stand-out performer, with listenership increasing by 15,000 to 244,000 making it the most listened to show on commercial radio in Ireland.
Elsewhere Newstalk Breakfast with Ciara Kelly and Shane Coleman also recorded and all-time high audience of 168,000 listeners, an increase of 11,000 book-on-book as did Lunchtime Live with Andrea Gilligan, now at 137,00, an increase of 19,000 listeners book-on-book.
Over at Today FM, meanwhile, Bauer says the station continues to edge towards a weekly reach of 1m, “with the latest report showing a listenership of 988,000 and market share of 8.9% – maintaining its position as the largest commercial station in Ireland.”
Strong performances from The Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show and Dave Moore in particular, all helped the overall listenership figures.
In Cork, meanwhile, Red FM has continued to perform well, “widening the gap against its nearest competitor on all key metrics. According to the JNLR, Red FM’s market share is now at 21% while its weekly reach of 177,000 and daily reach of 129,000 positions it as the market leader.
“This is a stellar performance from Bauer, with lots of all-time highs being recorded,” says Chris Doyle, CEO of Bauer Media Audio Ireland.
“Congratulations to the Newstalk team for a truly outstanding result. It’s also fantastic to see such strong numbers from SPIN and Red FM in their respective markets. We have the very best team across Bauer, who consistently create and deliver amazing content that connects with audiences across Ireland, every day”
Wireless Ireland
According to the latest JNLR, Wireless Ireland’s network of local stations in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Louth/Meath now reach 814,000 adults or 19% of the national adult population on a weekly basis.
In Dublin, Q102 grew weekly reach by 26% year-on-year to 197,000 listeners. At FM104, meanwhile, overall listenership was up 269,000. On a combined basis, the two stations give it 31% of Dublin listeners.
Commenting on the results, Sean Barry, Managing Director of Wireless Ireland said: “The continued growth in our audience numbers is testament to the work being done by our programming teams across the island.
“We continue to invest in the best talent and it’s great to see our audiences reacting positively to the changes that we have made. A strong JNLR number backs up what we’re seeing in our digital audiences and we look forward to even more growth in the future.”
Elsewhere, it was good news for the rock music station Radio Nova which, according to the latest JNLR, saw its market share in Dublin to 8.3%, with long-time rival. In addition the station now has 246,000 weekly listeners while its daily audience was up by 13,000 to 135,000 in its wider franchise area of Dublin city, county and commuter belt.
“The champagne corks are popping here today with the JNLR ratings officially confirm that Radio Nova is Dublin’s Number One music radio station – significantly ahead of all other music stations in the city. We’ve passed out FM104, Today FM, RTE 2FM, 98FM, Spin & Q102 by a mile – making Radio Nova by far the largest music station on the dial,” says Kevin Brannigan, CEO & programme director.
