Friday, July 25. 2008
The quarterly RAJAR figures have been released for Q2 2008, and in the latest round of the ratings battle the BBC have taken a slight dip. Chris Moyles and breakfast godfather Wogan both lost listeners. BBC local stations also lost share in the last quarter with BBC Solent, Jersey, Three Counties and Kent amongst a long list of those reporting woes.
Conversely commercial radio stations achieved a great set of results. In London Neil Fox’s breakfast took the sought after top spot for Magic's breakfast show. Elsewhere Island FM and The Bee posted impressive share increases.
Overall the picture for radio is good, and digital continues to notch up total share of listenership, up a tiny 0.1% in the last quarter. The number of people listening on mobile phone is up by 3.3%, the biggest quarterly jump to date.
With the likes of Kiss 100 announcing content will be available on the new iPhone, this is set to continue. But I’m confused, surely listening to a show on a 3g mobile makes me an online listener?
Thursday, July 17. 2008
In the forthcoming issue of our newsletter Onward (coming in the next few weeks, sign up here for a free copy) we feature an article about the power of research and how a local bias will help gain extensive radio coverage.
Our thinking is backed up by Radio Centre’s latest survey which has some pretty impressive statistics about the impact of radio news.
On average, local radio stations transmit 20 news bulletins of around 3 minutes each day. 69% of all radio news bulletins contain local news stories. What’s more 93% of stations are transmitting content live online.
To give you an idea of sheer scale of the opportunity the survey reminds us that 347 UK Commercial Radio stations attract a weekly audience of 31 million adults, who listen for over 424 million hours each week. That’s about half of the total UK population.
Download a pdf of the full survey here.
Friday, May 23. 2008
The much-feared gap between urban and rural broadband take up was finally laid to rest by Ofcom today. The BBC and Metro report that 59% of rural households are connected to broadband compared to 57% of their urban neighbours. Sunderland came out as the most connected town, while Glasgow came bottom. Interestingly, Ofcom suggested ‘Glasgow's position probably reflected low levels of household income and computer ownership’ which goes to show that broadband has still to be fully adopted by the C2s and Ds of society. You can see the full executive summary of the report on the ofcom site
What this article does suggest to me, is that convergent technologies are now becoming the norm, and while rapid adoption is still limited to younger, more economically mobile consumers society as a whole is starting catch up.
Ofcom now puts the figure of ‘Engaged (20%)’ and ‘Pragmatists (30%)’, that’s 50% of the UK population moving in the right direction, as the cost of entry falls, the rate of adoption can only increase.
Friday, February 1. 2008
It has reported revenue of $4.83bn (£2.43bn) for the quarter to December 31, which is a 51% increase on the same quarter in 2006 and a 14% increase on the previous quarter.
Google says a revision in the company's formula for showing advertising clicks led to the reduction in revenue.
The search company's founder Sergey Brin says: "We had a challenge in Q4 with social networking inventory as a whole. I don't think we have the killer best way to advertise on social networks."
The company says it has been the reducing the clickable area around its ads to decrease the number of accidental clicks and increase effectiveness for marketers.
Google paid MySpace owner News Corp $900m (£452m) in 2006 for the right to deliver ads to the networking site's 70 million-plus users.
Surely Google have learnt that those people who use social networks don't want to be bombarded with adverts? Consumer backlash against instrusive advertising (think only of Facebook's Beacon) will not change so the approach of those seeking to commercialise has to, let alone those who allow advertising on their sites. Ultimately it's the marketers who need to take responsibility to find new ways to engage with their audience.
Monday, December 24. 2007
The Queen was swift to grasp the importance of television when her Christmas message was televised for the first time 50 years ago and once again she is embracing popular culture.
Today it is no longer quite the fixture it was - but Her Majesty has risen to the challenge. Last year, her Christmas message was, for the first time, issued as a podcast while this year it will be carried on the internet. The aim, says Buckingham Palace, is to make the message "more accessible to younger people and those in other countries".
With eight grandchildren ranging in age from 30 years to just one week, the Queen is no stranger to the ways of the young (she does, after all, text). What could be more natural than to decide, at the age of 81, to deliver your message through the medium they actually use?
