Headline News for All Radio Listening
Kicking off with the unsurprising news that the radio industry is still booming.
89% of the entire population tune in to radio on an average week. Beating the new generation of entertainment on platforms such as Netflix as well as the traditional newspapers and TV.
That's 48.8 million adults listening every single week with the top spot for listening being at home with 60%, followed by 24% in the car.
But when we break down the consumption into hours, the figure is even more impressive with 20.8 hours of live radio being listened to by each person per week on average.
But let's not forget about digital listening, which is continually growing and has now risen to65% of the population listening via a digital device.
Commercial vs BBC
Commercial radio figures continue to overtake the BBC as can be seen below:
- All commercial reaches 36,147,000 per week
- All BBC 34,080,000 per week
Figures by Group
Global continues to lead the UK commercial radio listenership with its highest ever reach -25.6 million weekly listeners.
Next is Bauer Media with 18.1 million per week.
And Wireless is in at third with 4.9 million.
The Brands and The Networks
The Hits Radio’s Brand figures have risen from 6million to 6.5million and all other figures staying on par with the figures released in Q1.
- Heart Brand - 9.7 million
- Heart Network - 8.5 million
- Capital Brand - 8.2 million
- Capital Network - 7.2 million
- Hits Radio Brand - 6.5 million
- Smooth Brand - 5.7 million
- Kiss Network - 5.3 million
- Smooth Radio Network - 5.1 million
- Absolute Radio Network - 4.7 million
- Magic Network - 4.1 million
The Nationals
Classic FM national figures continue to rise, while Kiss and TalkSPORT also increase their weekly reach Q-on-Q.
- Classic FM - 5.6 million
- Kiss - 4.2 million
- Magic FM - 3.3 million
- TalkSPORT - 3.1 million
- Absolute - 2.1 million
In the Capital
Capital still proves to be London’s favourite with a consistent rise in its listener figures and followed still by similar-style radio network Kiss, whose figures also continue to increase.
Not much change elsewhere, except for LBC and Absolute who have seen their figures rise slightly from last quarter.
- Capital London - 1.8 million
- Kiss London - 1.6 million
- Magic London - 1.5 million
- Heart London - 1.4 million
- LBC 97.3 - 1.2 million
- Smooth Radio London - 790,000
- Absolute London - 729,000
- LBC News London - 598,000
- Radio X - 426,000
North of the Border
Clyde 1 heads up the listener figures North of the border with Capital Scotland catching up with a steady growth throughout 2018 and beginning of 2019.
Meanwhile, Smooth Scotland has creeped up ahead of Heart Scotland and Forth 1 is gradually gaining more and more listeners.
- Clyde 1 - 593,000
- Capital Scotland - 558,000
- Smooth Scotland - 420,000
- Heart Scotland - 404,000
- Forth 1 - 327,000
Regional Radio
Regional Brands/Stations by Reach:
- Smooth Radio North West - 984,000
- Capital Yorkshire - 945,000
- Heart North West - 681,000
- Heart West Midlands - 632,000
- Heart West Country - 585,000
- Capital East Midlands - 516,000
- Smooth Radio North East - 508,000
- Capital Birmingham - 496,000
- Heart Four Counties - 480,000
- Gem - 457,000
- Capital Manchester - 452,000
- Smooth Radio East Midlands - 444,000
- Heart Yorkshire - 426,000
DAB Brands
Interestingly enough, the share of listening via AM/FM radio as opposed to Digital has gone down this quarter, however when we look at the yearly figures, it tells a different story as digital listening rose from 50.2% to 56% and traditional radio dropped from 44% to 49.8%, thus showcasing that there is an overarching rise in digital listening.
Also some exciting news on recently launched Scala and Country Hits Radio, which have recorded 258,000 and 208,000 listeners respectively.
Speaking of digital, Kisstory has increased by 14.8% and the other digital stations listenership figures are as follows:
- Kisstory - 2.3 million
- Absolute 80s - 1.8 million
- Heart 80s - 1.5 million
- Virgin Radio - 1.5 million
- Planet Rock - 1.2 million
