BAUER MEDIA ACHIEVES HIGHEST-EVER REACH FIGURES WITH 13 MILLION LISTENERS EVERY WEEK.
- Magic 105.4 and Kiss 100 secure #1 and #2 market positions in London for first time.
- Record figures for Kiss 100 Breakfast Show.
Bauer Media's network of local, national and digital radio stations has delivered its highest ever reach with 13 million listeners tuning in every week, according to Q2 RAJAR released today and a 25.5% share of the commercial market.
Magic 105.4 and Kiss 100 have for the first time taken the number 1 and 2 commercial market positions in London, with a combined market share of 12% - up 20% on the quarter and 4.3% on the year. Magic and Kiss now reach 3.5m listeners, up on the quarter and 3.7% year on year.
Rickie, Melvin & Charlie’s Breakfast audience is the biggest in the dance station’s history, with a market share of 5.4% - up 59.4% for this quarter and 29% year on year. The flagship show reached a total audience of over 900,000 listeners, up 38% on the quarter and 14.5% year on year.
Sony Station of the Year Kiss 100 registered a total market share of 5.6% - up 37% qoq and 12% yoy, with an audience of 1.848m - the biggest audience Kiss 100 has ever had. It remains the most popular radio station in London for 15-24 year olds in terms of reach, beating all commercial and BBC stations in London for that age range.
The Total Kiss audience across the UK is also up by over 10% qoq, with an audience of over 3.7 million.
Magic 105.4: the ‘more music, less talk’ station has over 2m Londoners tuning in for the 7th Rajar quarter in its history. It has increased its market share and audience again, jumping 8.5% qoq to 6.4% and reaching an audience of 2.046 million listeners across London, an increase of 2%. These results see Magic 105.4 remain the biggest commercial station by share.
The More Music breakfast show with Neil Fox increased its reach by 6.9% this quarter, with a total of 839,000 listeners tuning in.
Overall the Magic Network was up 2.6% on the year, reaching 3.7 million.
THE BAUER RADIO NETWORK
Our Big City Network of 18 local stations reaches 4.7 million people across the UK every week, up 5% on the quarter, with 41.9 million listening hours, up 2% on the quarter. Big City continues to reach more listeners in its TSA than either Radio 1 or Radio 2.
In Manchester, the city's iconic Key 103 station has enjoyed a sterling performance, with reach now firmly topping the half a million mark at 524,000 listeners, up 10.8% on the quarter. Key's hours have also seen a massive leap, up 34.7% on the quarter to 3.97m. These great results are testament to the investment in market and product insight, plus the introduction of 'No Repeat Workday' in April to reinforce the station's 'number one hit music station' positioning.
Staying in the North West, Rock FM continues its glittering trajectory with yet another great set of results. Reach and share are all up on the quarter and the year, with hours jumping 18.5% on the quarter to 2.36m. Rock FM now enjoys the highest number of listeners for six years, and the highest hours since 2006.
Special mention must go to Leeds station 96.3 Radio Aire, which has boosted its quarterly reach by 41% and hours by 35.8%. This tops off a great quarter for the station, which benefitted from a high-profile outdoor advertising campaign, plus the launch of the legendary Party in the Park, attracting 70,000 people. May also saw Leeds-born drivetime presenter Rich Williams being named Arqiva Commercial Radio Awards Presenter of the Year - a great demonstration of nurturing home-grown talent through the ranks.
Other strong performances were seen by Radio City (hours and reach both increased on the quarter); Tay FM & Radio Borders (both stations also increased hours and reach on the quarter and the year); Sony Award-winning Station of the Year MFR, which now enjoys an incredible 75.8% commercial market share, up 2.9% on the quarter; and last but not least CFM, which grew reach to 105,000 listeners (up 27.8% on the year) and hours to over 1m (1.04m, up 32.4% on the year). As well as seeing the benefit from a series of product changes implemented last year, the station was a pivotal source of both information and support to the local Cumbrian community during the recent tragic shootings at the beginning of June.
In Scotland, our eight stations retain commercial market leadership, reflecting a real connection with audiences. Across the country, 1.8m people - 41% of the population - listen to a Bauer Media station with the company achieving more listening hours than BBC Radio 1 and 2 combined. Forth One has added 3,000 extra listeners in the last quarter, and the amount of time listeners spend with the station has increased by 4% over the past year.
Cool FM in Northern Ireland, which celebrates its 20th birthday this year, has seen its audience rise by 15% over the past 12 months adding 50,000 new listeners. Hours are also up 10.9% on the year, at 3.5m. Cool FM & Downtown posted a combined reach of 585,000 listeners, up 10% on both the quarter and the year.
Ric Blaxill, Head of Music for Big City, commented: "We're delighted to announce another superb set of results for Big City, with the Network showing clear gains in audience numbers and listening satisfaction every quarter. This is testament to our strategy of delivering locally-tailored programming by teams who are passionate about their audiences - we are able to react to situations as and when they occur, and enjoy the privileged position of being able to influence and create conversations amongst our listeners.
"We are also continuing our commitment to a strong, competitive music offer in addition to world-class, cross-network music events, and were proud to broadcast Rihanna's final UK tour gig in May. Our series of summer events is also well underway, with the inaugural Key 103 Summer Ball, 96.3 Radio Aire's Party in the Park and Scotland's biggest pop festival IN:Demand LIVE all having taken place in July, with more to come from Radio City and Rock FM later this month'.
West Midlands-based Kerrang! Radio was up on the quarter and year with 1.3m listeners every week, fuelled by a team tuned into bringing its audience the very best in up-and-coming and established rock music. In the last quarter Kerrang! Radio has attracted live gigs from Tom Jones, Paul Weller, and the Manic Street Preachers and exclusive interviews with Slipknot, Ozzy Osbourne and Bon Jovi.
On the South Coast, Wave 105 continues to lead its market with 350k listeners in an extremely competitive TSA.
DIGITAL
With 20 million listeners now tuning into digital radio, we boast three in the top ten led by The Hits, Smash Hits and heat, with the latter’s figures for reach and hours rocketing in the last quarter. heat Radio attracts 672k listeners who tune into 2.7m hour's worth of music, news and entertainment every week.
Dee Ford, Group MD Radio, Bauer Media, commented:
“Bauer Media’s radio network of local, national and digital stations added nearly 700,000 listeners in the second quarter of 2010 illustrating our ongoing success in delivering entertaining and engaging programming and compelling local content. With almost 13 million people tuning in every week, our increasingly influential portfolio of commercial radio stations have driven Bauer Media to its best-ever performance on reach.
"Special congratulations must go to Rickie, Melvin and Charlie at Kiss 100 in London on a stunning set of figures; to Key 103 in Manchester which is delivering on its ‘'number one hit music station' promise; and heat radio which achieved massive growth in audience and hours thanks to our continued programming investment. A great result by all the teams.”
“Source: RAJAR / Ipsos - MORI / RSMB, period ending June 2010, all stations and groups results are reported on their specified reporting period and TSA”
RAJAR Data Q2 2010 - Download in PDF
Ends
