29 Jan 2004 |

RAJAR Results: Q4 2003: Rugby Fails To Boost talkSPORT

England’s historic victory over Australia in the Rugby World Cup final did little to improve the fortunes of Kelvin MacKenzie’s talkSPORT. The station saw its weekly reach decline by almost 23% year on year, despite its coverage of what proved to be the biggest sporting event of 2003.

The latest RAJAR audience figures show that talkSPORT lost more than half a million listeners in the three months to December 2003 with its weekly reach dropping well below the 2 million mark.

The national speech-based station did not have the broadcast rights to the tournament, which took place in Australia between 10 October and 22 November. However, it increased its rugby coverage over the seven week period and launched a number of regular updates and dedicated shows containing interviews and match reports (see TalkSPORT Secures Tetley’s For Rugby Sponsorship).

Sports-focused BBC Radio Five Live also failed to benefit from England’s Rugby World Cup campaign. The station suffered a 2.4% year on year decline in weekly reach to just over 6.1 million and saw its share of listening slip by 0.3% points during the same period to 4.4%.

Meanwhile, BBC Radio One continued to see its grip on the lucrative youth audience loosen, despite an almost never-ending flow of publicity surrounding its decision to replace Sara Cox in the all important breakfast slot with drive-time host Chris Moyles (see BBC Radio 1 Drops Sara Cox From Breakfast Show).

The station suffered a sharp 10.1% year on year decline in weekly reach to below the 10 million mark and saw its share of listening slide by 0.7% points during the fourth quarter of the year. Media planners will anxiously watch the effect the new presenter has on the BBC’s commercial rivals in the lucrative breakfast market.

Classic FM also had a less than impressive period with its weekly reach dropping by 6.7% year on year to just over 6.2 million and its share of listening dipping by 0.4% points during the same period. However, the situation was worse for Total Virgin Radio, which suffered a sharp 8.6% decline in weekly reach and a 0.2% point drop in its share of listening in the three months to December.

The fourth quarter of 2003 continued to see the launch of a number of new digital radio stations and Emap’s Mojo entered the market with a weekly reach of 134,000, ahead of Heat with 58,000 listeners. Kerrang! held onto its position as Emap’s most popular digital station with a weekly reach of 722,000 and a 0.2% share of listening.

Speech-based oneword recorded a solid weekly reach of 64,000 in the three months to December. However, the station recently announced a raft of redundancies and a wide-ranging restructure of its operations following the withdrawal of one of its major shareholders (see Oneword Restructures As Major Shareholder Pulls Out).

National Stations Weekly Reach (000s)
Station	Reporting Period	Dec-02	Dec-03	% Change
BBC Radio 1	(Q)	10,505	9,440	-10.1
BBC Radio 2	(Q)	13,260	13,151	-0.8
BBC Radio 3	(Q)	2,154	2,192	1.8
BBC Radio 4	(Q)	9,798	9,513	-2.9
BBC Radio FIVE LIVE	(Q)	6,274	6,125	-2.4
BBCRadio Five Live (inc. SPORTS Extra)	(Q)	n/a	6,150	n/a
BBC Radio FIVE LIVE SPORTS EXTRA	(Q)	n/a	257	n/a
6 Music from the BBC	(Q)	n/a	155	n/a
1Xtra from the BBC	(Q)	n/a	248	n/a
BBC7	(Q)	n/a	267	n/a
BBC World Service	(Q)	n/a	1,296	n/a
BBC Asian Network UK**	(Q)	n/a	453	n/a
Capital Disney	(Q)	n/a	39	n/a
Core	(Q)	n/a	98	n/a
Classic FM	(Q)	6,657	6,210	-6.7
Classic Gold Network (Total UK)**	(Q)	n/a	912	n/a
Galaxy Network**	(Q)	n/a	2,737	n/a
Heat	(Q)	n/a	58	n/a
Kerrang!	(Q)	n/a	722	n/a
Mojo Radio	(Q)	n/a	134	n/a
Mean Country**	(Q)	n/a	85	n/a
oneword radio	(H)	n/a	64	n/a
Planet Rock	(Q)	n/a	199	n/a
Q	(Q)	n/a	378	n/a
Saga’s Prime Time Radio	(Q)	n/a	120	n/a
Smash Hits Radio	(Q)	n/a	751	n/a
Sunrise Radio National**	(Q)	n/a	620	n/a
talkSPORT	(Q)	2,415	1,866	-22.7
The Arrow	(Q)	n/a	24	n/a
The Hits	(Q)	n/a	824	n/a
The Storm	(Q)	n/a	74	n/a
Total Capital Gold UK**	(Q)	n/a	1,745	n/a
Total Heart**	(Q)	n/a	3,024	n/a
Total Jazz Network**	(Q)	n/a	1,424	n/a
Total Kiss**	(Q)	n/a	2,378	n/a
Total LBC**	(Q)	n/a	783	n/a
Total Magic**	(Q)	n/a	2,592	n/a
Total Virgin Radio	(Q)	2,817	2,574	-8.6
Total Xfm (UK)**	(Q)	n/a	614	n/a
Yaar Radio	(Q)	n/a	13	n/a
**Audiences in local analogue areas excluded from All BBC Network Radio and National Commercial total

National Stations Share Of Listening (%)
Station	Reporting Period	Dec-02	Dec-03	% Point Change
BBC Radio 1	(Q)	8.4	7.7	-0.7
BBC Radio 2	(Q)	15.8	16.0	0.2
BBC Radio 3	(Q)	1.2	1.4	0.2
BBC Radio 4	(Q)	11.5	11.5	0.0
BBC Radio FIVE LIVE	(Q)	4.7	4.4	-0.3
BBCRadio Five Live (inc. SPORTS Extra)	(Q)	n/a	4.4	n/a
BBC Radio FIVE LIVE SPORTS EXTRA	(Q)	n/a	***	n/a
6 Music from the BBC	(Q)	n/a	0.1	n/a
1Xtra from the BBC	(Q)	n/a	0.1	n/a
BBC7	(Q)	n/a	0.1	n/a
BBC World Service	(Q)	n/a	0.6	n/a
BBC Asian Network UK**	(Q)	n/a	0.3	n/a
Capital Disney	(Q)	n/a	***	n/a
Core	(Q)	n/a	***	n/a
Classic FM	(Q)	4.7	4.3	-0.4
Classic Gold Network (Total UK)**	(Q)	n/a	0.8	n/a
Galaxy Network**	(Q)	n/a	1.9	n/a
Heat	(Q)	n/a	***	n/a
Kerrang!	(Q)	n/a	0.2	n/a
Mojo Radio	(Q)	n/a	***	n/a
Mean Country**	(Q)	n/a	0.1	n/a
oneword radio	(H)	n/a	***	n/a
Planet Rock	(Q)	n/a	0.1	n/a
Q	(Q)	n/a	0.1	n/a
Saga’s Prime Time Radio	(Q)	n/a	0.1	n/a
Smash Hits Radio	(Q)	n/a	0.2	n/a
Sunrise Radio National**	(Q)	n/a	0.5	n/a
talkSPORT	(Q)	1.7	1.4	-0.3
The Arrow	(Q)	n/a	***	n/a
The Hits	(Q)	n/a	0.3	n/a
The Storm	(Q)	n/a	***	n/a
Total Capital Gold UK**	(Q)	n/a	1.1	n/a
Total Heart**	(Q)	n/a	2.3	n/a
Total Jazz Network**	(Q)	n/a	0.7	n/a
Total Kiss**	(Q)	n/a	1.2	n/a
Total LBC**	(Q)	n/a	0.7	n/a
Total Magic**	(Q)	n/a	1.8	n/a
Total Virgin Radio	(Q)	1.6	1.4	-0.2
Total Xfm (UK)**	(Q)	n/a	0.4	n/a
Yaar Radio	(Q)	n/a	***	n/a
**Audiences in local analogue areas excluded from All BBC Network Radio and National Commercial total
***Share negligable