Analysis of trends in ratings of and listening to UK radio stations, written by Grant Goddard in January 2009 for Broadcast magazine.

1. UK RADIO AUDIENCE TRENDS:
Q4 2008
by
GRANT GODDARD
www.grantgoddard.co.uk
January 2009

2. The latest RAJAR results tell us something we already knew. When significant global news
events occur, people traditionally turn to radio because it offers them immediate and portable
access to breaking stories. And so it was in the final quarter of 2008, which was filled with
banking crises, retail closures, job losses and the US election. BBC Radio Four recorded its
highest listening share ever (12.4%) and BBC Five Live its highest share in four years (4.8%).
At a time when news provision in the print and TV media is under severe stress from
diminishing usage, it seems remarkable that one eighth of all radio listening in the UK is to
Radio Four, whose output remains dominated by news and current affairs.
Every winner creates a loser, and so it was with commercial radio, whose focus on
entertainment rather than news, and music rather than speech, contributed to its third worst
listening share in the last decade (42.2%). Even in London, where commercial radio stations
outnumber the BBC by a factor of three, Radio Four recorded an incredible 2.1% share
increase year-on-year (to 17.5%), almost unprecedented in such a competitive radio market.
The only morsel of good news for the commercial sector was the improved listening share of
local commercial radio, up from an all-time low of 30.3% at the beginning of 2008 to 31.6% last
quarter.
Despite the positive spin today from some stakeholders, the underlying data tracking radio’s
migration from analogue to digital listening makes grim reading. The huge, pre-Christmas
marketing campaign broadcast on BBC and commercial radio to promote DAB led to a fall in
listening via digital platforms from 18.7% the previous quarter to 18.3%. The BBC fared
particularly badly, with listening via both DAB and the internet recording quarter-on-quarter
declines. Sooner rather than later, the BBC Trust must be forced to ask whether the tiny
audiences listening to its five digital-only stations launched in 2002 justify their costs.
Commercial radio had to address this issue in 2008, resulting in the closure of seven digitalonly stations.
However, overall, the results demonstrate that radio as a medium has a more certain future
than some of its traditional competitors. Weekly reach is still 90% (45.5m adults) and users
spend 22.3 hours per week listening to radio. The economic challenge, for both the BBC and
the sector itself, is to keep commercial radio in business in 2009. That task will prove
considerably tougher than simply keeping people listening.
[Commissioned by Broadcast magazine. Unpublished.]
Grant Goddard is a media analyst / radio specialist / radio consultant with thirty years of
experience in the broadcasting industry, having held senior management and consultancy
roles within the commercial media sector in the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia. Details at
http://www.grantgoddard.co.uk
UK Radio Audience Trends: Q4 2008
©2009 Grant Goddard
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