Q4 1998 RAJAR – National Stations

The weekly reach of All BBC stations rose by 0.6% to 26.73 million in Q4 1998, according to this afternoon’s RAJAR data release. This compares to All Commercial’s weekly reach increase of 0.2% to 28.45 million. Whilst BBC Network Radio saw a 0.9% rise in its weekly reach (23.15m), All National Commercial radio fell by 4.9% to 11.18m. Commercial radio did, however record a stronger performance locally with All Local Commercial raising its weekly reach by 1.4% to 23.77m

In terms of share of listening, All Local Commercial had 41% (1.5% points increase) which compensates for the underperformance of National Commercial – down 0.7% points year on year, to 9.3% share of listening. Overall, though, the commercial sector has held on to its lead over the BBC with share split 48.5% to 49.3% in commercial’s favour. However, the gap between the two is closing: commercial’s lead over the BBC in terms of share of listening is now only 0.8% – at the same point last year commercial held a 1.6% lead.

Year on year, Atlantic 252 recorded the largest fall in weekly reach, down 21.5% from 3.31 million to 2.60 million. Virgin Radio had a mixed final quarter: where Virgin London (AM/FM) had a robust Q4, with a 7.9% increase in weekly reach to 1.11 million listeners, the national Virgin Radio AM saw a 8.3% drop in its weekly reach to 3.04 million. Total Virgin Radio’s weekly reach thus fell 5.4% year on year to 3.78 million. Its share of listening showed a corresponding fall of 0.1% points, to 3.4%. Virgin this week announced an alliance with Talk Radio and US media group Clear Channel to bid for regional digital radio licences around the country (see Talk, Virgin and Clear Channel Form Digital Radio Consortium).

All of the national talk-based radio stations showed falls in weekly reach, year on year. BBC Radio 4 down 1.6% to 7.94 million (10.5%), BBC Radio 5 down 0.3% to 5.03 million (3.6%) and Talk Radio down 1.6% to 2.31 million (1.6%). Radio 4 did, however, record a credible 10.5% share of listening, up 0.1% year-on-year from Q4 1997.

In terms of weekly reach Classic FM posted the strongest performance of all the national stations with a 4.7% increase to 5.14 million. This translates to a 3.7% share of listening (up 0.3% points, year-on-year).

BBC Radio has increased its overall share of radio listenership, from 47.9% (Q4 97) to 48.5%. Radio 1 continues to consolidate its market share with a 2.9% increase in weekly reach to 9.76 million – its highest figure since Q1 1997 (10.28m) and a 0.7% increase in share of listening year-on-year. Radio 2 continues to perform consistently with its weekly reach remaining steady at 8.89 million (a 0.9% increase) and a 13.1% of listening (0.1% points increase year-on-year).

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