The latest JNLR results show that 3.2m or 78.3% of all Irish adults tuned into a radio station on a daily basis with weekly listenership figures rising to 90.7% of all adults on a weekly basis.
The latest JNLR book also shows that 87% of 15-34 year olds listened to radio every week. In addition over 2.1m adults listen to their local or regional station every single week day, according to the JNLR book.
Radiocentre Ireland noted that there is a steady increase of listening through devices with 5.4% of all adults listening now through a smart speaker while listening via a mobile device accounts for 3.3% of all radio listening. This increases to 8.6% of all listening through a smart speaker and 6.9% of listening is through a mobile device for the younger 15 to 34 age cohort.
“The ability to access content easily and the quality and popularity of Irish radio is shown by this JNLR release reporting that the average adult is listening to radio content for over 4.3 hours each day,” says Ciaran Cunningham CEO Radiocentre Ireland.
“I am delighted to see that radio In Ireland is continuing to attract record audiences. The fact that millions of listeners are tuning in every single day is testament to the hard work and investment from radio stations up and down the country. Radio listening is booming and today’s figures are a great reminder that Irish radio is a central part of people’s lives. As a commercial medium, radio gives brands a way to speak to millions of people every day,” Cunningham says.
Regional
The latest JNLR book shows that national radio still holds the majority share position in Dublin (56.6%) and the greater Dublin Commuter belt (55.9%). Local and Regional radio, meanwhile, accounts for the majority in the other areas throughout the country, in particular, achieving its highest share position in Cork (65.0%), in the North-West (60.8%) and in the South-West (58.1%)
RTÉ
Across the different broadcasting groups it was very much a case of mixed fortunes for some of the country’s top radio shows and presenters with RTÉ in particular seeing a minor erosion in some of its key listenership figures.
RTÉ Radio 1, however, still remains the only station with more than 1m listeners (1.34m) and it output still dominates Top 20 radio programmes in the country with 17 of them attributable to the broadcaster’s stable of high-profile presenters. Despite this, it’s audience share declined to 20.5% last year, a drop of 0.7% while most of its top programmes shed listeners.
Once again, Morning Ireland was the most listened programme (433,000 listeners) but this was down 18,000 book-on-book. Other shows like the Ryan Tubridy Show shed 13,000 listeners to 331,000 while Today with Claire Byrne dropped 10,000 listeners to close with 321,000. Joe Duffy’s Liveline, meanwhile, was down 11,000 listeners to 310,000 while News at One lost 15,000 to end the year with 310,000 listeners.
There appears to be a continuation of post-Covid adjustment in this book, but there is also encouragement in our reach to 20–45-year-olds being up across the board. This growth in younger cohorts is positive as we are here to build a station that reaches across generations and is future-proofed,” says Peter Woods, head of RTÉ Radio 1.
Bauer Media
The latest JNLR book was encouraging for Bauer Media Audio Ireland (BMAI) with its stations achieving a combined weekly reach of 1.74m listeners and 1.1m daily listeners. BMAI stations also account for 21.3% of all prime-time listening. This is an all-time high performance and makes Bauer the Number 1 group for listening share in the key audience demographics of 15-34-year-olds, 20-44-year-olds, and 25-54-year-olds.
The latest results show improved performances from across the portfolio of stations which include Today FM, Newstalk, 98FM, SPIN 1038 and SPIN South West.
According to BMI, Today FM “extends its lead as Ireland’s Number 1 commercial radio station on all top line audience measurements with a primetime market share of 9.6%, the highest in over a decade.” The stations weekly audience climbs to 875,000, over 200,000 more than RTÉ2FM while Today FM’s daily audience reaches a seven-year high of 455,000, BMAI notes.
Newstalk continued its recent strong run by adding 8,000 listeners, growing its weekly reach to 792,000 listeners while registering an all-time high market share figure of 7.2%.
The latest book shows an all-time high for Ciara Kelly and Shane Coleman on Newstalk Breakfast reaching an audience of 152,000 while Sean Moncrieff has increased audience by 19,000 in the last year to sit on 96,000.
Elsewhere 98FM has increased its daily reach by 9,000 since the last book, growing its market share to 5.6%. SPIN, meanwhile, remains Ireland’s leading youth radio brand with SPIN 1038 the top music station in Dublin with 264,000 weekly listeners weekly and 152,000 daily listeners.
“This is a huge result from all of the Bauer Media Audio Ireland brands, delivering the best ever market share for this group of stations,” says Bauer Media Audio Ireland CEO Simon Myciunka.
“ It demonstrates the amazing connection they have with audiences across music, entertainment, news, current affairs and sport. The scale of the BMAI portfolio gives advertisers unrivalled access to sought after audiences in the live and on demand environments,” he says.
Wireless
The latest JNLR book also showed some growth for Wireless Ireland which now delivers a weekly audience of 759,000 listeners, giving it a market share of 11.9%.
This was helped by Cork’s 96fm reclaiming top spot with a market share of 20.9% in Cork and Limerick’s Live 95 retaining its market leading position with a share of 27%, according to Sean Barry, Wireless Ireland’s managing director.
“The combined Cork’s 96fm and C103 offering now delivers a 37.8% share in Cork making it the stand out choice amongst all media offerings in the county.”
Dublin FM104’s new schedule has helped the station grow its audience with our combined Q102 and FM104 offering commanding an 11% share of the competitive Dublin market. Meanwhile LMFM continues to dominate choice for listeners in Louth and Meath with a market share of 38% up 3.9% on this time last year.
“I’m delighted to see our audience continue to grow, delivering market leading brands in Ireland’s most premium markets and with the changes recently implemented in Dublin, we expect to see further growth in the future as shows like 104 Drive with Graham and Nathan deliver more traction. It’s particularly pleasing to see the continued progress made in Cork as Cork’s 96fm reclaims a market leading position and KC and Ross establish themselves as the number one breakfast show in the market,” says Barry.
To download a copy of the latest JNLR click HERE
