By Caitlin Pike New figures from Rajar point to a spectacular success for speech-based London broadcaster LBC 93.7.
The
station increased its reach by 18.2 per cent year-on-year, compared
with falls of 4.2 per cent and 5.4 per cent respectively for national
rivals TalkSport and BBC Radio Five Live.
LBC managing director
David Lloyd said: “We are really pleased with our year-on-year growth
which reflects LBC’s move to become entertaining, compelling talk radio.
“We
have a great line of presenters, to which Sony award-winner Anna
Raeburn will be added in January. Our audience is also growing younger
and this reflects the fact that we do what the BBC doesn’t and lead by
personality.”
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Lloyd is challenging the BBC with big-name
presenters such as Jenny Eclair, Paul Ross, Sandi Toksvig and Iain Lee.
However, the reach of Nick Ferrari’s breakfast show was down by 4.11
per cent to 303,000.
BBC Radio recorded its highest ever share of
listening at 54.6 per cent – an increase on the quarter (54 per cent)n
and the year (54.4 per cent) – compared with commercial radio’s 43.5
per cent. National commercial radio, buoyed by new digital services,
has recorded an all-time high share of 10.5 per cent this quarter.
BBC
Radio 4’s reach and share grew with the station’s reach of 9.62 million
up on the quarter (9.59 million) and on the year (9.42 million). Share,
at 11.5 per cent, was up on the quarter (11.2 per cent ) and the year
(11.3 per cent).
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The reach of the BBC’s local radio stations,
including Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland services, is 9.86
million, down slightly on the quarter (10.08 million) and the year
(9.93 million).
Share has also dipped to 10.7 per cent, down from the 10.9 per cent of last quarter and last year.
Commercial
radio attracts a 76 per cent share of listeners to local stations, with
people tuning in for 14.2 hours per week on average.
Listening to
digital radio is becoming increasingly popular, with the percentage of
adults who own a digital radio at home rising to 10.5 per cent from 4.5
per cent in September 2004. The proportion of adults who have listened
to radio via the internet has increased from 16.1 to 19.7 per cent in a
year.
●Guardian Media Group’s Real Radio is now the most listened-to radio station in Scotland, writes Hamish Mackay.
Real
Radio, which broadcasts across the central belt, pulled in more than 1
million extra listening hours in the three months to the end of
September, clocking up 9.09 million listener hours per week compared
with BBC Radio Scotland’s 8.08 million.
BBC Radio Scotland still has the highest number of listeners at 966,000, but broadcasts over a much wider area.
Real
Radio remains Scotland’s number one commercial radio station, with
733,000 adult listeners a week, up 40,000 on the previous quarter.
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