Overview

One or two surprises have made themselves apparent with the latest listening figures for Quarter 4, 2009. Which is good after the damp squid that was Q3.

Wogan has held his own as he left BBC Radio 2, handing over 8.1million listeners to Chris Evans. BBC Radio 1's Chris Moyles added 200,000 listeners but what did Radio 3 do to lose 320,000 fans?

In the commercial radio sector, Heart is back as London's number one station, followed by stable-mate Capital FM. It means former champion Magic 105.4 is now number three, when counting bums on seats rather than market share. If share if your game, Magic is number one and LBC takes 2nd place.

talkSPORT has registered its highest ever market share, and Absolute is pleased with its listener loyalty.

We haven't inspected all the figures for the individual Heart's yet, but Global Radio tells us the network of 33 stations adds 300,000 listeners year-on-year – which generally means the quarter-on-quarter figures weren't as hot.

Andrew Harrison, chief executive of RadioCentre said: "The figures for local commercial radio highlight that local commercial radio is at the top of its game and delighting its audience. With an increase in listening for all radio across the board, and the number of listeners tuning into DAB showing encouraging growth, it's clear that Britain loves radio.”

Digital listening share increased marginally this quarter (11.4 per cent to 13.7), but more houses now have a DAB set, which can only be good news.

Overall, 46 million adults (45.7m last quarter) or 89.6 per cent of the UK population over 15 tuned in to their favourite radio station each week in the last quarter of 2009.

This time round, Kick FM and Kestral are not taking part in the survey, whilst Kingdom FM and Yorkshire Radio have revised TSAs. There are change of names for Pulse Classic Gold to Pulse 2 and The Coast drops the "was Original 106" tag from their station reporting title.

Local radio RAJAR round-up

BRMB has hit an all time listening low with 66,000 listeners leaving the station in the past three months, and total hours continuing to fall.

The station, which is currently claiming to be "under construction" is hoping to return to its glory days under new owners Orion Media.

In the Global portfollio, Heart Northants reports its biggest audience in five years, Heart North Devon is also benefitting from the Heart re-brand and Galaxy stations in Southampton, Scotland and the North East has shown major increase in listeners.

Looking at the independents, 3TR FM drops back down to 23 per cent reach (from 27 per cent), Brunel FM has dropped from 18,000 to 12,000 listeners, Dearne FM continues to shed listeners and Juice FM Liverpool is down in reach and hours. (Seems all stations in Liverpool have lost this quarter)

Lite FM returns to RAJAR with worse figures than when they left, with over half the hours they had a year ago and The Revolution has posted a dip in listeners this quarter, but still show an improvement on a year ago.

Meanwhile, 3FM has an impressive yearly increase, going from 22 per cent reach last year to 33 per cent today and 107 The Bee continues to enjoy a high average hours of 16.2. At Tindle, Island FM Guernsey has the highest listening share in any area, with 35.5 per cent of people in their TSA listening whilst Channel 103 Jersey gains a weekly reach of 53 per cent.

Over at the Beeb, BBC Hereford and Worcester takes a hit on the total hours, which now stands at under one million for the first time in recent history, and BBC Radio Merseyside drops 24,000 listeners to an all time low of 279,000 listeners.

Radio Norfolk is down 22 thousand people whilst Radio Nottingham lost 28 thousand listeners this quarter.

JACK fm has its highest ever listening figures with an extra 7,000 people now listening every week. General Manager Ian Walker said: “Oxfordshire clearly appreciates having a truly local radio station which doesn’t just play the same 10 songs over and over, and which continues to buck the trend of homogenised, clinical networked radio. Thank you Oxfordshire!

At UKRD / TLRC, hours are up at Spire FM, whilst 2BR, Alpha Radio, Durham FM, and Minster FM see market gains.

Commenting on the latest result for UKRD, Group Programme Director Phil Angell said, “Does anyone ever read down as far as this on a RAJAR press release? Look, some of our stations went up a bit and some of them went down a bit just like has happened with the Heart stations. Mind you, if you look closely at our 25-34 males on a Wednesday lunchtime....”

Good on ya, Phil.

UTV Radio's national sports station talkSPORT has recorded its highest ever market share, and highest ratings for breakfast, whilst Absolute Radio and Classic FM both see a drop in listeners.

But whilst most stations go down after a re brand, Absolute Radio is happy with their increase in total hours – up 2.1 per cent this quarter.

In Golden Square, Clive Dickens, Chief Operating Officer of Absolute Radio told us: “Total listening hours are a strong indicator of listener satisfaction and we are very pleased with this result."

Global Radio's Classic FM is down to a recent low of 5.1million listeners, and market share is down to 3.5. Last quarter the station was on 5.4m and 3.7 share.

talkSPORT now has a weekly reach of 2.5 million, with 1.2m tuning in to Alan Brazil and Ronnie Irani in the morning. It is the only national terrestrial station to gain listeners this quarter too.

Scott Taunton, UTV Media (GB) Chief Executive, said: “This is a fantastic result, ending what has been a great year for talkSPORT. More people are listening, they’re listening longer and we have grown market share to a record figure in the face of increased competition.

Sir Terry Wogan has departed Radio 2 breakfast with a set of figures to be proud of, pulling in 8.1mlisteners in his final quarter on the show to match his previous record.

And listeners to the final Wake Up To Wogan will be re-united with the presenter on Radio 2 on Valentines day, as he starts his new two hour show from the Radio Theatre.

Tim Davie, Director of BBC Audio and Music, said “Terry is a legendary broadcaster and these figures show his popularity has never been higher. I’m now looking forward to tuning into his new show later this month.”

Sir Terry’s performance at breakfast helped to boost Radio 2’s weekly share to 16.5 percent, matching the network’s record high, despite a slight decline on reach from 13.62m to 13.46m.

Over at Radio 1, the stations reach and share dipped a little, to 10.76m weekly listeners and a new share of 9.9 per cent, however the reach is an improvement on last year’s figures. The Chris Moyles Breakfast show has enjoyed a lift in reach with 7.24m listeners now tuning in each week.

Radio 3 has lost 320,000 listeners in the last quarter, giving the station a new weekly reach of 1.87m and taking their share down to 1.1 percent.

Radio 4’s previous quarter seen them hit a record reach of 10.21m, it’s now back down to 9.84m but the share has climbed a little to match the network’s joint highest figure of 12.5percent.

BBC Radio 5 Live and Sports Extra now have a combined weekly audience of 6.19m, with Sports Extra contributing 663,000 of that figure. The reach is better than that of one year ago but lower than last years numbers. Share has also taken a tumble to 4.6percent.

The BBC’s digital services have also performed well, with BBC 6 Music growing their audience to 695,000, beating figures for the previous quarter and year. BBC Radio 7 is now posting an increased audience of 931,000 while BBC Asian Network and 1Xtra staying steady with audiences of 360,000 and 531,000 respectively.

BBC World Service now has a reach of 1.23m.

It's all change in London for the top three commercial radio stations, as Global takes the top two positions for number of listeners for the first time for Heart and Capital under their new owners.

Bauer Media's Magic 105.4 drops to 3rd place behind Capital FM at two and Heart 106.2 on top, for the first time in almost three years.

However, if you calculate your success by share, Magic remains on top with 6.1, and LBC enjoys the longest commercial hours at 13.6 (compared to Heart's 5.3 and Capital's 4.9).

There's not much in the numbers though, as Heart is now listened to by 1.881million, compared to Capital's 1.827 and Magic's 1.821.

Kiss is not far behind with 1.605million, whilst LBC takes 5th place with 841,000.

Elsewhere, LBC News 1152 has lost almost 150,000 listeners this quarter, and GMG's Smooth Radio loses over a quarter of its listenership dropping from 583,000 to 414,000.

Global's Ashley Tabor, Founder and Group CEO said: “This is a landmark day for Global Radio, taking the Number 1 and 2 positions in London! It’s a target that the whole team here has been working to for some time and I’m delighted the hard work has paid off.”

Richard Park, Director of Broadcasting at Global Radio said: “We have worked hard to consolidate and re-structure our brands and today’s results show our ongoing commitment is paying off. We’re absolutely delighted.”

Steve Parkinson, MD of Bauer Radio London said: “I’m especially pleased that Magic’s share is number one again."

An IAB study, in partnership with Opinion Matters, surveyed 80 senior marketers and found that 88% of brands rate social media as important to their business. A third of advertisers planned to allocate between 6% and 20% of their digital marketing budgets to it this year, compared with just 14% last year.

However, there’s still great uncertainty about which department should be responsible for social media in the business. While three-quarters of respondents (73%) said social media should come under the marketing department, it was also found to be the responsibility of PR (33%), customer services (16%), research (12%) and IT teams (7%).

The biggest issue for social media is ROI, due to its qualitative nature. 74% of respondents believed that proving ROI was the greatest challenge for the social media sector. Measurement was viewed as the major stumbling block by 64%, while 57% said that more education about how to best use social media is necessary

Only 7% of respondents haven’t embraced social media in any way, but only 22% have interwoven it into core communications strategy. Of respondents, 20% feature social media in the majority of campaigns, while 23.5% opt to use the medium ad hoc and 27% have tested it with a view to using it again.

Data released by mobile operator body the GSMA has revealed Facebook dwarfs all other mobile internet traffic, accounting for almost half of total page views from the 16m people going online via their mobile in December.

Initial Mobile Media Metrics (MMM) data from three operators shows 16m unique users viewed 6.7bn pages, spending 4.8bn minutes online during December.

This number will grow following the addition of data from T-Mobile and 3 within weeks.

The top ten sites browsed accounted for 70% of total page views and time spent online via mobile. Facebook was the most popular site with almost 5m unique users, ahead of Google with 4.57m visitors. O2, Orange and Vodafone portals followed, ahead of Yahoo, the BBC and Microsoft.

Mobile domains owned by Apple and Nokia made up the remainder of the top ten sites.

Facebook also claimed the lion’s share of total page views, with 2.64bn in December, beating Google into second place with 894.3m page views. Bebo, Ebay and Flirtomatic also appeared in the top ten sites with the highest page views.

Facebook saw the most amount of time spent on its mobile site in December, accounting for 2.16bn minutes during the month, with Google again second, claiming 395.6m minutes.

Just my opinion and apologies if any political allegiances shine through in this following blog rant (these are not the views of markettiers4dc) but our Chancellor is hardly a 'Darling' of the online world as he confirmed in this morning's Pre-Budget report that he will be introducing a new broadband tax next year of £6 a year

Whilst 50p a month may not sound much to begin with, the question is how long will it be before this new tax becomes an easy target to be increased in future budgets just like petrol or alcohol, should Labour win the next election? The alleged use of the money will be to help rural areas of the UK gain access to super-fast broadband with a target reach of 90% of the population by the end of 2017. However, this figure is estimated to fall way short of what is required to achieve that goal - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8403273.stm - and so it will surely be only a matter of time before Mr Darling comes knocking on our virtual doors for more cash?

Now I have no objection to my hard earned taxed cash going to help those in hard to reach parts of the UK connecting to the web in super fast time so they can join in this very blog debate, but didn’t he also announce today that our National Insurance contributions are going up, oh, and VAT is back up again too? Sure, these other increases are earmarked for other expenses . . . ah, there's a word we could debate too. I wonder if Mr Darling will expense his broadband connection so that he can work from home a little more - after all, what's an additional £6 when you've already been accused of claiming over £70,000 - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1145574/Alistair-Darling-accused-doing-Jacqui-Smith-lavishing-70-000-family-home.html

Much was made of the chemistry between Johnny Vaughan and Denise Van Outen when they co-presented The Big Breakfast on Channel 4, but Capital FM's attempt to recreate this winning formula on its radio breakfast show fell flat.

Within six months, Van Outen - Vaughan's third co-host since he replaced Chris Tarrant as the Capital Breakfast Show's presenter - had left, and the station was lagging behind Magic and Heart in the London ratings.

But Capital now seems to have found a winning combination in Vaughan and Lisa Snowdon - the model, TV presenter, Strictly Come Dancing sensation and ex-girlfriend of George Clooney.

For the fifth consecutive quarter, the station held on to its position as the most popular commercial radio breakfast show in London, outstripping nearest rival Heart by 200,000 listeners in the latest Rajars.

'We think we have found a combination that has stuck,' says Paul Jackson, group programme director at Global Radio, Capital's parent company. 'Johnny is a vibrant, energetic character and he and Lisa absolutely click. You cannot fabricate that kind of chemistry.'

Bright Young Things director Niall Cowley says Snowdon has the clout to match Vaughan. 'Her Strictly Come Dancing and Britain's Next Top Model jobs dovetailed beautifully, making her one of the most sought-after celebrities in London,' he says. 'When we get wish lists from clients, she is always top.'

Helen Moore, editorial services director at markettiers4DC, says: 'Capital is increasingly doing a great job of owning London. We have incorporated it into a number of campaign strategies for clients trying to reach the cool, London-centric "it girl" audience.'

Since Global bought Capital's former owner, rival radio company GCap, the station has blossomed. Jackson says: 'We have really focused on getting it back to being a core hit music station. The breakfast show is in good shape, and pop artists know they have to be on Capital if they want to be successful.'

Moore agrees: 'While traditional opportunities are limited because Capital is used to interviewing A-listers and people with high media profiles, a strong opportunity does exist for relevant events happening in the vicinity, especially if there is celebrity attachment.'

Capital's own events programme reflects its clout in London. Its annual Jingle Bell Ball has been extended to two nights this year and will feature performances from pop heavyweights including Janet Jackson, Lady Gaga, Alexandra Burke and Shakira.

James Herring, joint MD of Taylor Herring, says: 'Getting out there and mingling with London off-air is really important and it seems to be working for Capital.'

QUICK FACTS
Audience: 1.62 million listeners (Source: Rajar)
Frequency: 95.8 FM
Website: capitalfm.com
Contacts: firstname.surname@capitalradio.com

A MINUTE WITH ... Paul Jackson, group programme director, Global Radio

- What is the competition like for Capital?

There are a lot of good breakfast shows in London, but for us the main competition would be The Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio 1.

- How did you react to Moyles goading Johnny Vaughan when he joined Capital?

- We didn't, and don't, take that kind of thing seriously. We just got on with it.

- What makes an ideal feature or guest?

We cover big London events. We do red-carpet premieres at Leicester Square and have the stars on. We work with all the big London organisations. But our audience tends to want the likes of JLS and Lady Gaga. We have LBC for more serious topics and guests.

- Tell us about your charity, Help a London Child

We are doing a big push at the moment. Lisa Snowdon is jumping out of a plane and drive-time presenter Greg Burns appeared in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and ran a half-marathon. We try to keep the momentum going year-round, but a couple of times a year we really focus on it.

Taken from PR Week

That’s certainly the view of WPP chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell, claiming that brands are not spending enough online because the people who run their agencies are too old and resistant to change.

Sorrell criticised brands for investing an average of just 13 per cent of their marketing budget online despite the rapid increase in digital media consumption.

"The companies that win are those that innovate successfully," he said. The shift from traditional to digital media will be helped by the fact that brands are becoming increasingly focussed on ROI.

As part of our contribution to this month's PR Week Digital Essay 'Be a leader in branded video' - http://www.prweek.com/uk/news/949264/Russell-Goldsmith-markettiers4DC---leader-branded-video/ - , I was also asked to respond to the question - "How should Neal's Yard Remedies have responded to the Guardian's bloggers?" which was in reference to the company's (lack of) participation in the Guardian's 'You ask, They answer' section - see http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/ethicallivingblog/2009/may/26/you-ask-neals-yard-remedies

You can see all the responses from the Digital Essay contributors including mine at http://www.prweek.com/uk/news/947566/Neals-Yard-Remedies-responded-Guardians-bloggers/

My letter to PRWeek got published in this week's issue but they edited it slightly, so here's the full version . . .

Before I rant, I need to confess to two things. 

1.       I wish I was Gary Barlow.

2.       I entered the X Factor with my colleagues Howard Kosky & Scott Jackson as the man-band ‘Redeemed’ (we didn’t get on TV!)

However, these two facts have not biased the following, which instead, is based on the fact that, as a father of two kids aged 12 and 9 who are both massive fans of the X Factor, I was dismayed and disgusted to see on the individual video page for Stacey Soloman’s audition on its official YouTube channel, postings that include graphic sexual references to what some men would like to do to her, or are already doing to themselves, and strong racist remarks too.

This is an official X Factor YouTube page from ITV, sponsored by Talk Talk.   I hope all three parties are proud of the individual that has been tasked with keeping it updated.

Aggregating content into social networks such as YouTube is a risky strategy for any brand but one that can be managed.  Leaving comment fields unmoderated is lazy and irresponsible.  I appreciate that moderating so many comments for one video is quite a task – Danyl Johnson’s audition has over 11,000 comments – but given just how much money the X-Factor franchise generates, would it be too much to ask the show’s producers to invest in a couple of moderators to monitor the comments?