Rather fabulous - the Q1 Rajars are in
Post categories: RAJAR,ÌýRajars,Ìýaudience,Ìýlistening,Ìýstatistics
00:01, Thursday, 12 May 2011
"Rather fabulous" - she really did say that a moment ago on the phone. I am referring to our Radio 4 audience guru, Alison Winter. It was a momentary lapse as she is, as you might expect when it comes to figures, well... measured... Thus you will gather that the for Radio 4 are cheering: a record reach in fact of 10.8 million. This means that 10.8 million people have listened to Radio 4 for at least five minutes a week in the last three months. This time last year the figure was 10 million. So congratulations to all programme-makers.
The previous all-time highest reach of 10.4 million was in the second quarter last year. Our best guess then was that this was because of the general election and the interest that generated. There has been no general election this time so it could be that once those listeners found us we managed somehow to hang onto them. Perhaps instead they have become entranced with the Arab Spring and our coverage of the Middle East... Or perhaps they just love John Humphrys - reach to the Today programme was a record 7.03million.
Share for Radio 4 too is slightly up at 12.3 per cent which makes it broadly consistent with last year when it was 12.2 per cent. (Share is the proportion of all listening to all radio in the UK) I find this heartening as it means that people are continuing to listen to Radio 4 for rather a considerable length of time- in fact they listen for around twelve hours a week. Given the explosion of choice in the media and the seemingly relentless demands on our time this commitment from our audience feels significant and privileged.
Among specific audience groups, we now have more women listening to Radio 4 than ever before - 5.49 million every week (vs. just under 5.34 million men). There are high figures among our core, very loyal, older audiences but at the same time we have more under-35s listening to Radio 4 than at any point since 2003.
And then there is Radio 7, now transformed into Radio 4 Extra. Weekly reach there too is a record 1.159 million. These record figures are in tune with the trend for radio which is something to celebrate but my personal view is that the greatest value they bring is to give all of us at Radio 4 the confidence to set them aside and concentrate on making the best programmes we can for our cherished and discerning audience.
UPDATE 2pm, May 12th: I have more news on this record quarter - and all credit to Radio 4's production teams. We have record listening figures for the following: comedy programmes across the week (5.22 million), our drama throughout the week (7.1 million), The Archers (2.49 million for lunchtime listening and 5.01million across the week); You and Yours with 3.33 million - and along with , Jenni Murray and the Womans Hour team can celebrate a record listening figure of 3.56million across the week.
Gwyneth Williams is Controller of Ö÷²¥´óÐã Radio 4 and Ö÷²¥´óÐã Radio 4 Extra- (Radio Joint Audience Research) is jointly owned by the Ö÷²¥´óÐã and commercial radio trade body the . Participating listeners are asked to record their radio listening in quarter-hour time blocks for one week.
- The RAJAR figures for 'linear listening', not including on-demand listening or podcasts, .
- Read 5 Live Controller; Adrian Van Klaveren's analysis of his network's figures..
- Read the Ö÷²¥´óÐã's press release and download the official RAJAR (PDF).
- Picture, , by , used .
Comment number 1.
At 12th May 2011, Russ wrote:Notwithstanding a cold winter and no one going out much, yes, the R4 figures are good, and the Radio 7 ones even better. (Q2 figures for the latter, as the transformed R4X, will be very interesting.)
I can't help thinking though the RAJAR base metric of 'at least five minutes a week' is a particularly blunt one for R4 - it could just be ten million lonely souls tuning into Sailing By. Please, let's have the figures for the Radio 4 top 100 programmes, in both linear and on-demand (non-linear) categories.
And, hows about a programme about the RAJARs?
Russ
Complain about this comment (Comment number 1)
Comment number 2.
At 12th May 2011, Lawrence Jones wrote:Radio 4 listening figures will start a long and slow decline, after the Ö÷²¥´óÐã banning of all on-line discussions relating to radio. How come Paul Donovan, Gillian Reynolds………Miranda Sawyer haven’t written or investigated the reasons behind this ban? I bet Chris Dunkely would have supported listeners and demanded answers.
There was an interesting article in yesterday’s Telegraph regarding the censorship that was imposed within certain sections pf Morrissey’s recent Front Row interview. Very sad………’Petticoat Line’ will probably be censored if it ever makes a re-appearance on ‘Radio New Trousers’ (with turn-ups). Should an aliceband wearing Cambridge girl trust a boy who rides a BSA Rocket 3, wears gauntlets and comes from Dundee?
Complain about this comment (Comment number 2)
Comment number 3.
At 12th May 2011, Dusty Substances wrote:Gwyneth - do you have any data to show how much or how little people have been enjoying the Archers since 2 January? Many Archers listeners are addicted and find it impossible to give up, but many many many of us have been unhappy about the sensationalism used to 'celebrate' the 60th anniversary and are finding the aftermath depressing and miserable. Much has been written to this effect by the likes of Gillian Reynolds, and the programme became a laughing stock on other Ö÷²¥´óÐã programmes. Ambridge Extra has failed to be the stand alone programme that it was claimed to be. Any thoughts? How have you felt reading so much negative copy about the main programme and its spin off in the last few months?
Complain about this comment (Comment number 3)
Comment number 4.
At 12th May 2011, Lars Post wrote:No reply today.
Gwyneth - Dusty is not a lone voice, there are many, many listeners or exlisteners who feel let down by Q1 of The Archers and who resent the 'big lie' that Extra would not impinge on the 'real' programme's storylines.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 4)
Comment number 5.
At 13th May 2011, psiops wrote:radio 7 had a record listening figure , please dont lump radio 4 extra in with that figure as 4 extra came after , we know the bbc are desperate to show it is working as a station but after reading all comments and writing a few on blog sites across the web it doesnt seem to be and from the 200+posted to the radio4 4 extra blogs not 1 was an out and out praise for the new station lets wait till the second quarter before we put any credence to the figures
Complain about this comment (Comment number 5)
Comment number 6.
At 13th May 2011, Steve Bowbrick wrote:Dusty Substances, Gwyneth has added an update to her blog post above. She notes record listening numbers for comedy and drama and also for The Archers in the first full quarter since the 60th.
Steve Bowbrick, editor, About the Ö÷²¥´óÐã
Complain about this comment (Comment number 6)
Comment number 7.
At 13th May 2011, U14804610 wrote:All this user's posts have been removed.Why?
Complain about this comment (Comment number 7)
Comment number 8.
At 13th May 2011, Dusty Substances wrote:Thank you Steve - however I did see the listening numbers. I was querying listener satisfaction. I take part in GfK daily surveys which very thoroughly audit satisfaction on a scale from 1 to 10, and ask for reasons for liking or disliking a programme. While I'm not hugely surprised that the sensationalism of early January could have spiked the figures, I am interested in the degree of enjoyment experienced by those listening. I can't believe the programme makers would look at numbers and not look at satisfaction. Is this data collected?
Complain about this comment (Comment number 8)
Comment number 9.
At 13th May 2011, Orbweaver11 wrote:Can someone tell me whether the Archers figures are for people who actually listen to the whole programme or for anyone who has switched on at any time between 2-2.15pm and 7-7.15pm on broadcast days? It's important because if it refers to this time slot then it also includes the two minute news summaries. I'm sure plenty of ex-Archers listeners (like me) occasionally switch the radio on for the news at 2 or 7 then off the moment the Archers music begins. If people like us would be counted in the RAJAR figures then there is a misrepresentation of what is really going on.
Thanks.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 9)
Comment number 10.
At 14th May 2011, Lawrence Jones wrote:Message 6
"She notes record listening numbers for comedy and drama"
So why is Radio 4 axing the Friday play? If R4 is in such a healthy state, then why did it axe ‘A World in Your Ear’? Why has R4 refused to release the results of the Radio 4 Roadshow experiment?
When Ms. Williams was interviewed on Feedback, she devoted a significant proportion of time extolling the virtues of the R4 producers and informing listeners how devoted they all are. If this is the case, then why was it that Ed Morrish, Simon Clancy, Torquil MacLeod and Kate Murphy were the only R4 producers to place more than five postings on the R4 messageboards over the 11 years that I contributed? There’s a 60:40 ratio female/male producer ratio on R4, so it doesn’t suggest that female R4 producers burn with enthusiasm for radio. The messageboard host,Ms. Anna M. C, spent half her life sending on contributors’ reviews/comments to R4 producers/commissioning editors, editors, writers………yet it was once in a blue moon that she would receive a response. The Learning Curve MB was full of professional educationalists holding chairs + Ph.D’s and made extremely interesting reading, but the programme could never be bothered responding. There was never one occasion when an R4 controller placed a posting on the R4 or Today messageboards and – as of today – there has never been one occasion when an R4 controller has replied to an R4 blog contribution.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 10)
Comment number 11.
At 14th May 2011, MariaClaire wrote:Perhaps you could ask whoever it is who Tweets on behalf of Radio 4 Extra to point out that the record figures that they're bragging about are for Radio 7, I very much doubt we'll see such rather fabulous figures for Radio 4 Extra in August. I resent whoever your Twitterer is trying to spin the figures in this way.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 11)
Comment number 12.
At 18th May 2011, invisiblepuddle wrote:Regarding the figures for The Archers:
It was previously reported that 5.05 million people listened in the second quarter of 2010.
How, then, can 5.01 million be any sort of record?
Complain about this comment (Comment number 12)