02

Feb

Radio celebrates its rude health with latest RAJARs

So, RAJAR results are in and the headlines are good once again, with the UK listening to huge amounts of radio every day, commercial and BBC alike.

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There’s no doubt this is a media sector with a positive outlook and rightly given the general performances across the different radio groups.  Millions and millions of people listen to the radio in the UK, providing hugely powerful relevant outlets across national, regional, local and specialist for PRs.  So, its success once again should be celebrated as radio is an essential channel in many great PR campaigns.

 

I’m going to hand over the rest of this blog to Steve Parkinson, MD, Bauer Radio London to give an inside-the-industry on why radio is a medium that is in a strong, exciting position in 2012.

 

STEVE PARKINSON, MD BAUER RADIO LONDON

I know journalists often hate the influx of “best ever” RAJAR press releases which descend after each new audience release, but it does feel like there can be some justified celebrations around many of the commercial radio board tables this week.

 

In terms of pure audience increases, it’s congratulations to the guys at Absolute who have increased their audience year on year by 26% from 2.2 million to 2.8 million. GMG and UTV have also seen 7% increases in audience to 5.6 million and 4.5 million respectively. Bauer’s seen an increase in both its Passion and Place portfolios to 13.3 million, and Global has seen a very slight decrease in audience year on year but is still out there with 19.4 million listeners.

 

In commercial radio we all no doubt have the ongoing discussions about how much advertising we can feature in any given hour, when the BBC carries none, other than its cross promotional might. I love the BBC as a consumer but we’ve got a fight on our hands when it comes to winning share off the ‘Giant with Deep Pockets’.

 

However, nonetheless it’s good to see that many of the commercial stations are giving it a damn good go.

 

In London, often seen as the shop window to the rest of the UK, it can only be beneficial for the radio industry to see Capital back at full strength with increases in reach and share, and a new breakfast duo leading the charge. With Magic beating Radio 2′s audience for the fourth time in three years, and Kiss celebrating record figures beating Radio 1′s audience again, these headlines can only add further reassurance to advertisers that radio is in a very healthy state, with some great platforms for clients to add to their media mix.

 

As an Aberdonian I have to remind some people that there is a world outside London. Whilst in England we take on the BBC in hand to hand combat, things are very different in Scotland, with Bauer stations surging ahead, each one taking number one position in their respective towns and cities, with breakfast shows also leading the markets, against commercial and BBC for audience reach. This often gets lost in the London led headlines and should be championed more.

 

Back in the big smoke and the battle at breakfast is going to be interesting this year. There’s Dave Berry at his new Capital table in pole position, Neil Fox is second and building his breakfast following to the detriment of Heart; and at a very close third Rickie, Melvin and Charlie are chipping away at Chris Moyles (with 25% more 15-34s preferring brekkie with Rickie and co than Chris). And let’s never forget how well Nick Ferrari does too at LBC with a healthy dose of commercial speech.

 

So plenty of choice on the menus this year – both for consumers and advertisers alike. Justifiably, a few reasons to be cheerful all round.

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05

Aug

Turning the radio dial up to 11

It was a great day for radio yesterday and the industry has been celebrating the biggest ever listening figures to radio in the UK. We’ve been pushing the message hard for London’s number 1 station, Magic 105.4 and the rest of the stations in the Bauer Place Portfolio and Bauer Passion Portfolio. I can share the full details of the results for these stations below and in particular it’s worth noting the performance of the Rickie, Melvin and Charlie breakfast show on Kiss FM which now has a weekly audience of 1.6M listeners nationwide.

One of the most interesting points is still the question of tracking and monitoring the new ways of listening to radio. Speaking of my own experiences, I now use my iphone as a portable radio around the home and garden, choosing radio stations via the TuneIn Radio app and streaming the play over wi-fi. I love it. It means I can take radio anywhere with me and I have all my favourite stations, commercial and BBC, bookmarked. And then there’s the playback facility in apps like KissKube – KissStory’s brilliant. Which underlines the importance of programming brands as well as the overall radio station brand. So, I’m listening to more radio than ever before (and it’s not even the footy season!) but none of that listening is being officially tracked. Something’s got to give…

In the meantime, here is the release in full:

BAUER INCREASES REACH TO 13.8m LISTENERS IN UK

MAGIC 105.4 RETURNS TO No.1 MUSIC STATION IN LONDON, AHEAD OF BBC RADIO 2

- Magic 105.4 (London) and Kiss FM (national) register highest ever reach -

- Bauer Place Portfolio and Bauer Passion Portfolio increase reach and hours year-on-year -

LONDON, Thursday 4 August: Bauer has increased its reach across the UK from 13m to 13.8m listeners year-on-year (yoy), with Magic 105.4 returning to number one music station in London ahead of BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 1, Capital and Heart. Magic 105.4 and national youth brand KISS FM recorded highest ever reach, up 11.7% and 14.7% respectively (yoy).

Bauer Place Portfolio –

Big in all the right places

The Bauer Place Portfolio increased its national reach by 4.5% (yoy) from 8.7m listeners to 9.1m listeners around the country. Listening hours increased 1.4% (yoy). This supports Bauer’s strategy of increasing listener engagement through relevant and local programming content, which is tailor made by local stations that broadcast to and from the places they live.

Bauer Place Portfolio is headlined by flagship station Magic 105.4, which returned to the number one spot in London after a spectacular quarter that saw an increase in reach of 14.4% quarter on quarter (qoq) and 11.7% (yoy) to almost 2.3m listeners. Hours and market share also increased, rising 19.4% (qoq) and 15.1% (qoq) respectively. The station was boosted by its on and off air promotion of the inaugural ‘Magic Summer Live’ event with Sir Elton John, the Lighthouse Family and Rumer. Breakfast presenter Neil Fox increased reach by 4.3% to 845k (qoq), to commercial number two ahead of Heart’s Jamie Theakston.

Stations in the Bauer Place Portfolio have also beaten BBC Radio 1 breakfast DJ Chris Moyles across the UK, taking number one spot in markets the length and breadth of the country, including Liverpool, Newcastle, Glasgow, Belfast and Sheffield. In addition to outperforming the BBC, Bauer is also commercial number one for reach and share in all of its 21 markets.

Top performing stations in the regions include –

· Radio City 96.7 in Liverpool, with reach up 12.7% and hours up 23.8% (yoy). It was boosted by the build up to ‘Radio City Live’, featuring artists like Scouting for Girls.

· Metro Radio in Newcastle, with reach up 1.6% and hours up 0.8% (yoy). Highlights included four days of live broadcasts to celebrate the start of Take That’s national tour.

· Clyde 1 in Glasgow, with reach up 8.5% and hours up 8.7% (yoy). Innovations included ‘Seven Saturdays in the Summer’, with broadcasts across the local transmission area.

· 97.4 Cool FM in Belfast, with reach up 9.9% and hours up 6.5% (yoy). Highlights included an outside broadcast from Oxegen Festival, featuring Beyonce, Coldplay and The Script.

· Wave 105 in Southampton, with reach up 18.7% and hours up 26.5% (yoy).

Bauer Passion Portfolio –

Uniting listeners around music and lifestyle

Youth brand KISS FM recorded its highest ever audience – both across the UK and in the competitive London market. Reach jumped from 3.7m to 4.3m listeners across the UK, an increase of 14.7% (yoy), and listening hours also increased by 13.1% (yoy). The KISS FM breakfast show, Rickie, Melvin & Charlie in the Morning, increased its reach nationally by 104,000 listeners (yoy) and now attracts an audience of 1.6m every week. In London, KISS FM is now the biggest station for the all-important 15-24yo, 15-34yo and 15-44yo audience, beating BBC Radio 1, Capital and Heart.

KISS FM headlines the Bauer Passion Portfolio, the home of Bauer’s passionate, iconic brands dedicated to music and lifestyle. The Portfolio increased its reach from 6.4m to 6.6m (yoy), up 3.4%. Listening hours also increased, up 4.3% (yoy).

Within the Portfolio, The Hits also increased its reach from 1.1m to 1.2m, with hours up 5.8% (yoy). Highlights include the brand new ‘Future Hits Live’ event series, intimate gigs featuring emerging artists like Tinchy Stryder, Wretch 32 and girl band, Parade. Popular promotions around ‘Bieber O’Clock’ and Glee saw The Hits become the top trend on Twitter for several days at a time this quarter, supporting Bauer’s strong focus on social media.

Smash Hits also increased its reach significantly, rising from 990k to 1.1m (yoy), whilst listening hours increased 1.6% (yoy). Smash Hits has continually proven the popularity of its jukebox style focus on pop music. The Bauer programming team focuses constantly on tweaking and fine-tuning the playlist, with a view to ensuring the music remains relevant.

Bauer Gets Social

Bauer’s strong focus on the power of social media to enrich the radio experience is reflected in its online and social media numbers. Each month 1.8m fans visit Bauer’s radio websites, total app downloads have now reached 1.5m and over 1.2m fans follow a station on Facebook.

Steve Parkinson, managing director of Bauer Radio London, said: “Our London team is rightly celebrating today’s figures – with both Magic and Kiss enjoying their highest audiences ever. Quite an achievement. Magic is playing the BBC at their own game by using other Bauer platforms such as magazines and TV to promote our service, and Kiss continues to connect with millions of young consumers across radio, and via a huge increase in app downloads and online listening.”

Dee Ford, group managing director radio, Bauer Media said: “I am very pleased to see that the strategy behind Bauer Place Portfolio and Bauer Passion Portfolio is continuing to pay dividends, as we return another strong set of results. I am particularly pleased to see Magic 105.4 return to number one spot in London, with the largest reach of all music stations, including the BBC. Commercial radio as a whole is performing very well and listening hours are up across the board. The rise in digital radio listening hours and reach is also a great story as The Hits and Smash Hits have a positive quarter under the Bauer Passion Portfolio. The Bauer Place Portfolio continues to focus on local programming and we are thrilled to see our hours continue to grow, reflecting our ambition to be ‘big in all the right places’. The results make Bauer commercial market leader for reach and share in each of our 21 markets.”

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16

May

Kiss storms onto national radio scene

Amidst all the stories from the latest Rajars, a stand-out story was the performance of Kiss as a national radio station for the first time.

To give the background, on Christmas Eve 201 Kiss started broadcasting one set of programmes across its many platforms – from FM in the South of England to its national footprint of DAB, TV and website totalkiss.com.

In the period Jan-Mar 2011, Kiss now reaches its highest ever audience – over 4 million 15+ listeners which is a 20% increase on the same period last year.

In London, Kiss 100 reaches over 1.8m young adults. up almost 10% year on year.

Kiss 100 also beats all London commercial and BBC stations on the elusive 15-24 and 15-34 audiences.

Upshot is if you are looking to target a 15-35 year old audience, take a close look at Kiss, with its combination of London presence, national reach and rapidly growing social presence.

Visit here for more useful info: http://www.kissconfidential.com/#content

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03

Feb

RAJAR: 46.7M adults listen to radio each week

The latest RAJAR results (for the period Q4 2010) are released this am and make interesting reading.

Overall, Radio listening is as popular as ever and remains high following its record breaking 46.8 million listeners reported last August 2010. Radio listening figures announced today by RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research Ltd) reveal that 46.7 million adults, or 90.5% of the UK population (15+), continued to tune in to their favourite radio stations each week* during Q4, 2010.

In London, Magic 105.4 has retained its crown as number 1 music station in London, ahead of Capital, Heart, BBC Radio 1 & BBC Radio 2. Magic 105.4 reaches 2,051m listeners in London, ahead of BBC Radio 2 (2,013m), Capital (1,961m); Kiss 100 (1,821m); Heart (1,766m); and BBC Radio 1 (1,642m).

Meanwhile, Kiss 100 is now the biggest station in London for reach and share amongst 15-24, 15-34 and 15-44 year olds, beating Capital, Heart, BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2.

The back-story is there’s an interesting battle shaping up between the major commercial radio players in the UK and a test of how much people in local areas connect with networked programming (i.e. content that is created and produced out of a central location e.g. London) versus local programming.

With this in mind, Bauer Radio has taken number 1 spot in 20 of 25 markets in the UK.
Its focus on tailoring content for local communities has proved successful as it retains number 1 position in 20 of 25 key markets across the UK, including London, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow and Aberdeen.

This battle for number one position in key UK locations will continue in 2011. It will be a fascinating one to follow when considering which stations are most effective to target as part of a PR campaign on a national and local level.

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13

May

RAJAR – Today’s numbers and what they mean

The following is a summary of headlines, compiled by our media agency client, Target Media’s insight team. Visit http://www.target-media.co.uk for more info.

Radio listening reaches an all time high of 46.5 million adults each week

90.6% of the UK adult population (+15) tuning in each week

up from 45.8 million last year, and up from 46m last quarter

Radio digital listening hours up 18% year on year to reach 19.7 million per week

24% of all radio listening now via a digital platform, which has grown 3.1 points from last quarter

DAB ownership up 13% year on year

17.7 m adults claiming to live in a household with a DAB receiver, an increase of 9% from last quarter

Listening to radio via mobile phone remains steady reaching 12.6% of all adults 15+

30.4% of 15-24s claim to listen to radio in this way

14% listening at least once a week, and 2.6% once a day

All commercial radio listening share against all BBC listening grew slightly from 48.2% to 48.5%, whilst at the same time all radio listening added an extra 247,000 listeners to deliver 45.968m.

BBC

BBC Radio 2 still retains the title of the UK’s favourite radio station, with its highest ever reach. It seems that the replacement of Terry Wogan with Chris Evans, and adding 30 minutes to its running time, has paid off for the service, adding 1.1million listeners. We can’t however see the churn rate of Terry’s listeners and a further analysis and memo will delve deeper into any demographic changes to BBC Radio 2

COMMERCIAL

Magic has returned its position to number 1 in London for Reach having temporarily been replaced by Capital last period.

Johnny Vaughan and Lisa Snowdon keep their spot as London’s favourite commercial breakfast show with over 1.1 million listeners beating Radio 1’s Chris Moyles

At breakfast in London; Jamie and Harriet remain strong in London with 798 000 listeners, maintaining its number 2 position in the London commercial breakfast show market

Kiss still boasts more 15-44 listeners than any other station in London, including the BBC, and it has been 25 years since Kiss started out as a pirate station.

Planet Rock, which has seen an increase in reach, also scooped the Sony award for best digital station this week.

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06

Aug

RAJAR: Strong results for commercial radio

Some healthy listener figures coming through this am for the Bauer Radio Network:

-Magic 105.4 retains market leadership in London for a tenth consecutive quarter with a record reach of 2.054m listeners – the only commercial station to exceed the 2m listener barrier.
-Over 852k Londoners tune into Sony Gold Winner Neil Fox’s ‘More Music’ Breakfast show.
-Kiss 100 boasts its biggest ever figures for reach, audience and hours, including the highest-ever audience figures to date for Rickie & Melvin at Breakfast – up 34% on the year.
-Best Big City Network market share for over 2 years – with stand out performances from Clyde 1, Metro, Forth 1,97.4 Rock FM and Cool 97.4 FM.
-heat Radio and Smash Hits deliver record q on q figures, with heat rocketing 70% to deliver 2.1m hours and 35% to reach over 572k celebrity obsessed listeners.

Full results available at http://www.rajar.co.uk

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