London's rolling news and speech radio station, LBC, has attracted more than 11,000 subscribers to its paid-for podcasts, bringing in more than £100,000 in revenue in the last year.
Announcing its interim results this morning, LBC parent company Chrysalis said the London station had seen revenues improve by 2.5 per cent in the last six months — while the rest of the group's radio division had witnessed a 9 per cent revenue slump.
LBC launched its foray into subscription-only podcasts in January 2006, under the name LBC Plus, with all of its shows, including breakfast presenter Nick Ferrari, plus some bonus content. Subscribers are charged £24 a year to access the content.
Since last August, radio station podcast downloads have been included in the official listening figures from industry measurement body Rajar.
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However, the latest set of results, released last Thursday, showed LBC had shed 11 per cent of its listeners year on year on FM, while its rolling-news channel on AM had seen audiences rise by almost a quarter.
Meanwhile, Chrysalis Radio said in its update to the City this morning that it was making "good progress" in its strategic review, which is likely to see Chrysalis quitting radio and selling all of its stations to trade or private equity buyers.
It is not yet known who has put in a bid for the group's radio assets, which include LBC, Heart and Galaxy.
The Chrysalis chief executive, Richard Huntingford, said: "We are making good progress with the review, having received a range of different proposals and a number of offers, and we will provide further updates in due course."
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