Radio Nova has recorded a further all-time high in its listenership figures in the JNLR radio ratings.
The station has increased its daily and weekly listenership to 89,000 and 175,000 respectively, with a jump in market share to 5.3% in its Dublin Commuter Belt franchise area.
This increases the stations’s numbers from 82.000, 172,000 and 4.7% as recorded in the December 2021 JNLR.
The station has also seen increases in its key shows across the schedule with 42,000 now listening to its ‘Morning Glory with PJ & Jim’ breakfast show, a year on year growth of almost 190%.
In the competitive Dublin market, Nova has increased its market share to 5.7%, where it has now passed out rivals Q102 (5.3%), Today FM (5.5%) and 2Fm (3.5%).
CEO and Programme Director Kevin Branigan told RadioToday: “We’re ecstatic about the listenership figures today. We’ve worked very hard on our programming, music and content over the 12 months and it’s gratifying to see this coming through with these really strong listenership figures”.
The latest figures come after a busy year for Radio Nova. The station announced in January that it had appointed radio strategists Liam Thompson and Dave Kelly as executive consultants to Nova and its sister station Classic Hits Radio. The two stations subsequently swapped breakfast shows with PJ Gallagher & Jim McCabe moving from Classic Hits to Nova and Colm Hayes and Lucy Kennedy moving to Nova.
The latest results show 3.208 million listeners (15+) tune into radio every weekday – that is daily radio listening at 80% of all adults.
A total of c 12,600 people were interviewed during the survey period by Ipsos MRBI, on behalf of JNLR – Joint National Listenership Research – that is commissioned by all national, regional and local stations, BAI, AAI, and IAPI.
Today FM continues to grow audience, registering its biggest weekly audience in more than 10 years. There are now 929,000 people tuning into Today FM every week (+52,000 YoY) and 453,000 each day (+38,000 YoY).
Every show across Today FM’s daytime schedule attracted new listeners during the last survey period including Dermot & Dave (9am – 12pm) who grew their audience to 208,000 (+3,000 BoB).
Ian Dempsey was also celebrating good news after increasing his breakfast show audience to 184,000 (+6,000 BoB).
Mairead Ronan leaves Today FM on a high, handing over an audience of 143,000 (+11,000 BoB) to new lunchtime host Pamela Joyce who started her show (12pm – 2pm) in recent weeks.
Today FM’s performance widens the gap with RTÉ 2FM even further. Today FM now reaches almost 220,000 more listeners every week.
In the afternoon timeslot of 2pm – 4.30pm, Fergal D’Arcy leaves the station with a healthy audience of 134,000. Ray Foley takes over this timeslot and launches his new show on Today FM from next Monday, February 14th.
At drive time, The Last Word with Matt Cooper (4.30pm – 7pm) had another good JNLR performance, passing a 10 year record to reach an audience of 173,000 (+3,000 BoB).
Matt said: “We’re thrilled to have our largest audience in a decade. It seems we’re hitting the right note with our content on The Last Word, a smorgasbord that delivers the right taste for our listeners!”
Commenting on Today FM’s results, James Brownlow, Managing Editor, Music & Entertainment, Bauer Media Audio Ireland said: “Bauer Media is already home to Ireland’s biggest commercial radio shows and personalities, but these latest audience figures from Today FM are a different class – in the last 3 listenership surveys, Today FM has seen the biggest growth in the market, thanks to Ian at Breakfast, Dermot & Dave with Ireland’s biggest commercial radio show and The Last Word with Matt Cooper which has achieved its highest audience on record.”
Newstalk has registered strong weekly reach growth and now has an audience of 784,000 and a National prime-time Market Share figure of 7.0%.
The latest results show audience increases across all primetime shows with all-time high results for the Newstalk Breakfast with Ciara Kelly and Shane Coleman, Lunchtime Live with Andrea Gilligan, and The Pat Kenny Show, which is has become Newstalk’s biggest ever programme.
Newstalk also cemented its place in Dublin as the second most listened to station with an all-time high prime-time Market Share figure of 11.9%. The station has grown its
weekly audience to 784,000 (up 17,000 Book on Book) and its daily audience to 435,000 (up 10,000 Book on Book).
Newstalk has achieved a national prime-time market share of 7.0% and in the key audience target of 25 – 44-year-olds, Newstalk outperforms RTÉ Radio 1 on daily audience with 12,000 more listeners.
Managing Editor of Newstalk, Patricia Monahan commented today: ‘We are delighted to see our audience continue to grow and to see that our output is resonating with and engaging even more listeners. We are particularly delighted to see growth in the 25 – 44 year old audience consolidating our position as the talk station of choice for a new generation.’
SPIN 1038 has further grown its position as the Number 1 Music station in Dublin, extending its lead over FM104 on daily and weekly reach.
SPIN South West continues to show its dominance in the region with a primetime market share figure of 12.2% and it remains the Number 1 station in the region, ahead of RTÉ Radio 1 on daily reach.
98FM delivered another strong performance with growth on all key audience measures including weekly reach, daily reach and market share positioning it well for continued audience growth in 2022.
Commenting on the latest JNLR for the Bauer stations, Bauer Media Audio Ireland CEO Simon Myciunka said: “We are delighted that the growth our stations experienced during the pandemic has continued. It is evident that our leading audio brands are in tune with audience demands and deliver the mix of music, entertainment and talk radio listeners want.
“Radio continually justifies its place in the modern media mix. With a combination of live and on demand content delivered both digitally and via FM, radio is an incredibly attractive medium to connect advertisers with audiences.
“Congratulations to the whole team at Bauer Media Audio Ireland, it is a combined effort that delivers results like these, and everyone should be proud of the great work that’s done each and every day.”
Ireland’s Classic Hits Radio has recorded its third successive JNLR all time high in the latest JNLR. The ratings give the multicity broadcaster 321,000 weekly and 161,000 daily listeners, increases from 309,000 and 158,000 respectively on the last JNLR survey. Market share now stands at 5.2% in the multicity area. *
CEO Kevin Branigan said: “These are very encouraging listenership for us today! Ireland’s Classic Hits Radio is one of the largest radio stations in the country and our growing figures over the last 18 months demonstrate this more and more. Our team has worked very hard over the past 12 months and its such a great feeling to see this work and innovation coming through in the JNLR today.”
Sunshine 106.8 is now the number 1 music station in Dublin for Market Share for adults aged 18+ in the 7am-12midnight period.
Afternoons on Sunshine with Carol Dooley (2pm-7pm) continues to hold the number 1 position for market share with all adults (15+) and remains the market leader for all music stations in the capital during the 2-7pm time period.
Live 95 has almost 100,000 listeners tuning-in every week, which is 60% of the people of Limerick City and County, or 6 in 10.
Station Director of Live 95, Joe Nash said: “We are honoured to serve the people of the great City and County of Limerick and grateful that they continue to respond in such numbers to Live 95 and our mix of the best music, chat, sport and detailed focus on local life in Limerick. I want to thank the team on-the-air and behind the scenes at the radio station for their hard work and dedication to delivering a service that the listeners of Limerick engage with so much and thanks also to our loyal advertisers, for their really valued support.
“Having kept Limerick listeners company during the pandemic, we are now looking forward to being with them as local life opens up again. There is lots to look forward to in 2022, including the St Patrick’s Festival, the Great Limerick Run, Munster Rugby, the Limerick hurlers and maybe even a scorcher of a summer and Live 95 intends to reflect and be part of all of this, during a year when hopefully we leave Covid behind us, as much as possible.”
East Coast FM saw in increase in Market Share from 24.9% to 27.9%, extending its lead over its nearest competitor (RTE Radio 1) by over 5%. Over 60,000 listeners across Wicklow now tune in each week.
East Coast FM’s Programme Director, Dave Harrington told RadioToday: “As we head towards Valentine’s Day it’s great to see Ireland’s love affair with radio continuing!
“A great day here at the station with even more listeners across Wicklow choosing East Coast every day. It’s testament to the power of local and a great team who strive to entertain and inform – from Rob and Laura on Freshly Squeezed, waking up Wicklow with a smile, Declan Meehan tackling the issues that matter to Wicklow on The Morning Show, Tommy Greene delivering great music through the afternoon and me (self praise is no praise right?!), getting Wicklow home on East Coast Drive.
“Sincere thanks to our loyal audience, from Brittas Bay to Blessington and from Roundwood to Hollywood – who continue to make East Coast FM, Wicklow’s Favourite Radio Station!”
Beat has increased its weekly audience by 3,000 listeners. The regional radio station now has 154,000 people that tune in every week, compared with 151,000 when the last data was published in December.
In the station’s target demographic of 15-34-year-olds, Beat continues to be the market leader. 69% of people aged under 35 in the South East now listen to Beat every week.
The station dominates radio listening for under 35-year-olds in the South East with 57,000 listening in each day – that’s more than 2FM (23,000), Today FM (21,000), Newstalk (7,000), and Radio 1 (8,000).
Beat Breakfast presenter and Head of Station Sound Niall Power says: “We’ve seen the important role that radio has played for people in Ireland during Covid and I think now that we’re starting to come out the other side of the pandemic, that appreciation of having such easy access to relevant news and information, a friendly ear, a bit of laughter and great music is being felt more. We look forward to welcoming more new listeners in the future to add to our consistently loyal fanbase.”
Commenting on the positive news, Beat CEO, Gabrielle Cummins, said: “Given the seismic impact of Covid over the past two years, I’m delighted that the hard work of the entire Beat team through what has been an incredibly challenging time has been warranted by such positive listenership figures.
“It seems the pandemic has only served to galvanise our audience’s relationship with the station, so as we exit what appears to be the worst of the pandemic, Beat will strive to be an even more intrinsic part of our listeners’ lives.”
Tipp FM has maintained its position as Tipperary’s Number 1 radio station with 76,000 listeners tuning in each week. The station continues to rank among the most listened to local radio stations in the country, with more than double the listenership of any national or regional station in the County.
Welcoming the JNLR figures Tipp FM’s Programme Director Stephen Keogh said: “Another set of spectacular figures for Tipp FM as we consolidate our position as number one in the Premier country.
“With an increase of 17% in the last book there’s always the fear of decrease, however thankfully we’ve maintained our lead over the opposition. In fact, we’ve increased our 7am-7pm market share which shows listeners tuning in are staying with Tipp FM for longer. This is fantastic news for our loyal advertisers who are recovering from the pandemic, and gives them reassurance that their message is being heard by so many listeners in Tipperary
“As always, the results are a credit to the dedication of such a talented and hardworking team at Tipp FM. We are extremely grateful to all our listeners and advertisers for their continued support.”
RTÉ reaches almost 2 million (1,961,000) radio listeners in Ireland, with 49 percent of the Adult 15+ population tuning in every week (+34,000 Book on Book).
RTÉ Radio 1 remains the only station in Ireland with a weekly reach of over +1 million (at 1,409,000) (+9,000), 17 of the Top 20 Most-Listened-to Programmes in Ireland (Adults 15+) are RTÉ Radio 1 programmes.
Morning Ireland is the most-listened-to radio programme in the country with 459,000 people tuning in each morning, (+9,000).
The Ryan Tubridy Show gained +7,000 with 366,000 listeners and is the second most-listened-to programme in Ireland.
Peter Woods, Head of RTÉ Radio 1 said: “This is a good book for us. It’s a testament to our schedule of presenters and the relentless work of our programme teams. It’s very heartening because it reflects right across the schedule – music and entertainment as well as news and current affairs – emphasising how central RTÉ Radio 1 is to the cultural and political life of this country. All of this is driven by our listeners and the connection that our programmes have with their audiences.”
RTÉ 2fm has a weekly reach figure of 710,000 of Adults 15+ (+10,000).
2FM Breakfast delivers to 111,000 listeners, (+8,000).
Jennifer Zamparelli on 2FM has 141,000 listeners (+1,000).
Tracy Clifford on 2FM has 129,000 listeners (+1,000).
Dan Healy, Head of RTÉ Radio Strategy and RTÉ 2FM said: “As Ireland starts to come out of Covid this survey clearly shows how well radio has performed. There are 1,059,000 adults listening to radio on average between 7am and 7pm Monday to Friday. That is an 89,000 increase for every hour since the last survey before Covid. This was a good book for RTÉ 2FM with audience growing across all our shows. Doireann, Donncha and Carl have done well at breakfast, with 15- to 34-year-olds coming to listen to the show. This continues with Jennifer Zamparelli, Tracy Clifford and a very good result for Jenny Greene.
Shortly The 2 Johnnies will join the station (21st February) and with all our other programmes, we anticipate that RTÉ 2fm will continue to grow in 2022.”
RTÉ lyric fm increased their listenership to 305,000 tuning in on a weekly basis (+23,000).
Lorcan Murray’s Classic Drive continues to increase listenership with 66,000 tuning in on weekday afternoons (+4,000).
Movies and Musicals with Aedín Gormley has 63,000 listening in on Saturdays, (+13,000), while Aedín Gormley’s Sunday Matinee increases by 8,000 to 50,000 listening in.
Marty in the Morning has 43,000 listeners turning on every morning (+1,000)
Liz Nolan’s The Full Score has 45,000 listeners (+2,000).
Niall Carroll’s Classical Daytime reaches 35,000 listeners (+4,000).
The Lyric Concert with Paul Heriott/ The Mystery Train with John Kelly (Monday – Thursday) reaches 31,000 (+5,000).
Weekend Drive with Evelyn Grant has 60,000 listeners on Saturdays (+12,000) and 50,000 on Sundays (+7,000).
Sinéad Wylde, Head of RTÉ lyric fm said “In another book of growth for RTÉ lyric fm we see that the station has built a real relationship of trust with Irish people. There was significant growth across daytime programmes with increases for Marty in the Morning with Marty Whelan, Classic Drive with Lorcan Murray and The Mystery Train with John Kelly. At weekends too more listeners came to us to relax and be entertained with gains across the schedule particularly on The Hamilton Scores with George Hamilton and Movies and Musicals with Aedín Gormley. RTÉ lyric fm, as well as being a haven for beautiful music where listeners come to unwind, is a dynamic and diverse space where listeners also come to be stimulated and brought on exciting musical adventures.”