markettiers4dc blog - Broadcast

RAJAR update February 2012

nospam@example.com (Russell Goldsmith) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:52:01 +0000

Paul Temple from our Media Liaison team gave us a pretty comprehensive round up of the latest RAJAR results so we thought we'd share it with all of you ...

The BBC remains the dominant radio player with 55.5% of all listening, against the commercial sector's 42.4%.
Overall, digital radio accounted for 29.1% of all radio listening, up from 25% in the last quarter of 2010.
Digital audio broadcasting (DAB) radio accounted for 19.4% of all radio listening, up from 15.8% a year earlier.
Listening via digital TV and on the internet dropped back on the previous quarter, albeit marginally, to 4.5% and 3.4% respectively.

So the movers and shakers!!

BBC National

BBC Radio 1
Chris Moyles is in danger of being overtaken in the popularity stakes by BBC Radio 4's Today programme, fronted by John Humphrys, which had an average weekly audience of 7.15 million in the last three months of 2011, a whisker away from its biggest ever listenership and just 90,000 behind Moyles on Radio 1, who had an audience of 7.24 million.

BBC Radio 2
Radio 2 remained by some distance the UK's most popular radio station with an average weekly audience of 14.27 million listeners, ahead of Radio 1 with 11.67 million and Radio 4 with 10.83 million

Breakfast Show hosted by Chris Evans had an average weekly audience of 8.86 million for his Radio 2 breakfast show – meaning he remains by far the UK's favourite person to wake up to.

BBC Radio 3
Radio 3 has a weekly audience of 2.10 million listeners – compared to 2.05m last quarter and 2.22m last year. The network’s share is 1.3%, up from 1.1% last quarter and 1.2% last year. Breakfast changes were controversial, but appear to be working as the station’s morning show added 149,000 listeners this quarter to hit a weekly reach of 703,000 (up from 613k in Q4/10).

BBC Radio 4
Radio 4 insiders attributed Today's growing popularity to big news stories such as the faltering economy and fears of a double dip recession.

BBC Radio 5Live
5 Live, which has just completed its more from London to the new HQ in Manchester, has lost nearly a million listeners to fall to its lowest audience since 2009. The rolling news and sport station pulled in 6.23 weekly million listeners on average in the final three months of last year. It was marginally down on the previous three months but 12.2% down on the record 7.09 million that it drew in the final quarter of 2010.

The latest figures are the lowest since its audience of 6.11 million in the final three months of 2009 with the year-on-year fall of the station's share of the audience proving even more dramatic, down a fifth to 4.3% from 5.3%.

A Radio 5 spokesman said it had been a record audience for the station at the end of 2010, when its audience was boosted by its coverage of England's victorious Ashes tour of Australia

"Radio 5 live continues to perform strongly, with 12 successive quarters above 6 million it remains highly rated by our audience. A year ago we had the excitement of the Ashes which were a key feature of many 5 live programmes including Breakfast and without doubt attracted large numbers of listeners. The figures quarter on quarter are virtually unchanged."

5 Live has faced increased competition from its commercial rival TalkSport in recent years, and lost a third of its live Premier League football matches to TalkSport and Absolute Radio at the beginning of the 2010/11 season.

BBC 6 Music
BBC 6 Music, the digital station that the corporation tried to axe, has celebrated its biggest audience of nearly 1.5 million listeners as it approaches its 10th birthday on the 11th March. 6 Music, whose presenters include Lauren Laverne, Jarvis Cocker and Elbow frontman Guy Garvey, had an average of 1.44 million weekly listeners in the final three months of 2011, according to the rajar figures released today.

Record audience for the weekday afternoon slot presented by Radcliffe and Maconie, drawing 477,000 listeners a week

6 Music was of course threatened with the axe in 2010 which prompted a huge protest from listeners and a big rise in its audience; it was later described as the best marketing campaign the station ever had.

With a 1.2% share of the total UK radio audience, 6 Music is now only a whisker behind BBC Radio 3, which has a 1.3% share of the audience. However, Radio 3 had rather more listeners, with an average weekly audience of 2.09 million

BBC Asian Music
The BBC Asian Network’s weekly reach was 472,000, from 477,000 last year and 507,000 last quarter

BBC World Service
Posted a UK reach of 1.39 million – from 1.46m last year and 1.50m last quarter

BBC Regional

No real year on year audience lift for the BBC's 40 local radio stations in England in the wake of controversial proposals to cut £15m from the budget and axe 280 jobs, although following a dip in Q2, we see a return in the last quarter, leveling the year out.

BBC local radio had an average of 7.3 million weekly listeners, up 45,000 on the previous quarter but down from 7.43 million at the end of 2010. Its share of the audience rose from 7.9% to 8.4%. The combined figure for Local Radio and National stations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland is now at 9.60million listeners per week – from 9.50 last quarter and 9.84 last year.

About half of the planned local radio cuts will be reversed following an outcry from the public, politicians and religious leaders, although it remains to be seen exactly where the axe will now fall. David Holdsworth, Controller of BBC English Regions said:

“These figures show that BBC Local Radio has consolidated recent gains and is on track to develop further growth in the long term.”

BBC London
BBC London 94.9 had a weekly reach of 485,000 – up 2.3% on the previous quarter but down 3.4% year on year.

BBC Cornwall
Up from 152,000 to 173,000, 13.8% increase on the last quarter

BBC Radio Berkshire
Fell 12.4% from 145,000 to 127,000

BBC Radio Derby
Welcomed a big jump, 13.5% from 140,000 listeners to 159,000, a gain of 19,000 listeners

BBC Radio Humberside
Broke the 200,000 listener barrier, up from 175,000 to 204,000, 16.5% up Q on Q

BBC Radio Kent
Grew past the quarter million mark, with 259,000 listeners, just under 10% increase

BBC Radio Lancashire
Up 5.6% year on year and 12.5 on the last quarter with 243,000 listeners

BBC Radio Manchester
After suffering from a fairly consistent decline in listeners in recent rajars, Manchester finally welcome a return of listeners. They are up from 165,000 a year ago to 249,000 in the latest release

BBC Radio Stoke
The only real significant decline in quarterly results, down almost 17% from 209,000 to 174,000 listenenrs

BBC Radio Tees
Another good leap in quarterly figures from BBC Radio Tees, with a 23.8% rise to 135,000 listeners

Commercial

UTV

talkSPORT
Commentary from the 2011 Rugby World Cup has helped sports station talkSPORT post its best ever set of quarter 4 figures. The station’s 3.196m weekly audience is up 2% this quarter, and 3.5% year on year. 2.6m of its listeners (80%) are male and that its Saturday evening Premier League football commentaries are attracting nearly 10% more listeners now than they were 12 months ago.

Moz Dee, talkSPORT Programme Director and Sony Programmer of the Year, said:

“Continued investment in our product of live sports rights and talent is clearly paying off. We were the only place to hear the biggest sporting tournament of last year – the 2011 Rugby World Cup and it’s great news that the event proved a draw for listeners. The audience is growing more aware of our live football and I’m really looking forward to a big year with commentary of live and exclusive Barclays Premier League and UEFA Champions League matches before the end of the season, as well as the football event of the year – the UEFA EURO 2012 tournament.”

You can see Moz's appearance on markettiers4dc's Broadcast Sessions here:

talkSPORT has also released website and smartphone app figures to coincide with the latest RAJAR numbers. It says talksport.co.uk receives around 2m unique users every month and saw a 89% increase in users in December 2011 compared with December 2010. The station’s iPhone app had 928,000 sessions in December – the highest ever in a single month and a 65% rise year on year.
UTV Local

Signal 1 in Stoke was the toast of the group with a new reach of 310,000 (up 17% year on year).
Calum Macaulay, Director of Local Radio for UTV Media said:

“Signal continues to go from strength to strength. It knows its audience inside and out, is unashamedly local and consistently produces great radio shows. The station is right up there with the best in British radio.”

107.6 Juice FM in Liverpool’s hit its highest ever reach (195,000) and hours (1.5m)

Wire FM is up 22% on reach

Tower FM up 24% over the 12 months of 2011.

Macaulay added:

“We’ve posted some great performances and it’s great to see our investment in Live Premier League football and Live Superleague paying dividends. We are proud to be local and are constantly investing to improve our local engagement.”

Absolute Radio

71% of Absolute Radio’s Network total listening is now via a Digital platform, against a industry average of 29%.

Quarterly figures remain static for the main Absolute Radio station, but has seen a 6% increase in London. The Christian O’Connell Breakfast Show has increased to 1.2 million reach, up by 22.7% from a year ago and 6.2% this quarter.

The latest figures for Absolute shows audience reach increased by over 25% since this time last year. Absolute pulled in 1.6 million listeners, down marginally on the previous quarter but up 16.3% year on year. The station has 11.2 million hours, an increase of 18.1% year on year and 8.8% on the quarter.

Double-digit year-on-year winners among the digital-only commercial stations included the Absolute pairing of Absolute 80s, up 24.5% (but down 18.7% on the quarter) to 828,000 and Absolute Radio 90s, up 18% to 348,000.

Clive Dickens, Chief Operating Officer said:

“This is a strong RAJAR for the Absolute Radio brand, bolstered by both on the quarter and the year in the highly competitive London Market. It’s also a great set of numbers from the Commercial Radio Breakfast Show of the Year, Christian O’Connell”.

Bauer Radio

Across the UK, most of the Place (former Big City) stations are down in listeners this quarter, including Radio City, Key 103, Viking FM and CFM. Metro, TFM, Radio Aire, Hallam, and Cool FM all increased listeners.

Heat
Double-digit year-on-year winners among the digital-only commercial stations included Heat, up 16.3% to 648,000

Kiss
Fell behind Heart in London in terms of weekly reach with 1.87m, against Hearts 1.93m, however Kiss had the edge in terms of audience share, with 5.4% against Heart's 4.6%. The station has 4.2 million UK wide.

The Hits
Despite losing 12.4% of its audience remained one of the biggest commercial digital-only network with 984,000 listeners a week.

Magic
Flagship station Magic 105.4, occupys the number two commercial position in the capital, has enjoyed an increase in listeners. Figures are up quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year, helped by recent major TV marketing, guest presenter Michael Buble and a £100,000 prize competition.

Other Bauer:
Year-on-Year Radio City and Key 103 increased reach thanks largly to major promotional events.
Kerrang! lost listeners, as did Wave 105.

Dee Ford, group managing director radio, Bauer Media, said:

“Bauer continues to believe strongly in the power of building personal relationships with our listeners, and the continued year-on-year growth of our Place and Passion portfolios gives further evidence that our strategy is working. Bauer is connecting and interacting with more listeners and more advertisers by championing local talent and tailor made programming for our Place Portfolio stations, as well as investing further in our digital teams to create greater engagement from our Passion stations, with Kiss at the helm.”

Bauer Scotland:
Forth One is up 25.4% in reach and hours up 35.5% year-on-year, although quarterly listener numbers have fallen.

Clyde 1, MFR and Northsound 2 have lost a few listeners, whilst Tay FM is enjoying an extra 1,000 listeners this quarter and Northsound 2 stays static.

Graham Bryce, Managing Director Bauer Radio Scotland, said:

“After strong growth over the past year, this was a consolidating quarter for the Bauer Radio Scotland portfolio, with all stations retaining their market leading position.

Global Radio

Nationwide, Global's Capital network of stations was up 4.7% year on year to 7.08 million but sister network Heart – which has also been rolled out across the country – fell back 3.6% on 2010, down to 7.46 million.

Capital FM
Gone but not forgotten, Johnny Vaughan has left Capital on a high with its biggest audience for nearly eight years with 2.25 million average weekly listeners in the final quarter of 2011, up 14.9% year on year. Vaughan quit the station's breakfast show abruptly in November after nearly eight years.

The breakfast show remained by some distance the most popular commercial offering in London with an average of 1.32 million listeners between 6am and 10am. It was 16% up on the previous three months and nearly 22% up year on year. Overall the station regained the top spot among the London commercial stations from Bauer Radio's Magic.

Capital also had its biggest weekly reach since the first three months of 2004 – coincidentally the last quarter before Vaughan took over the breakfast show – when it had an audience of 2.34m but still has some way to go before it matches the 7.9% share of the London audience it had back then. It’s latest share was 5.9%, just ahead of Magic, which had 2.17 million weekly listeners and a 5.7% share.

Across the country, Capital stations in Birmingham, East Midlands and South Wales saw a drop in listeners this quarter whilst Manchester, South Coast and Yorkshire increased. Capital Scotland kept the same amount of listeners but saw an increase in hours. As a network, reach, share and total hours up quarter on quarter with an increase of 315,000 listeners year on year, with 7.1 million listeners now tuning in every week.

Ashley Tabor, Founder & Executive President said:

“I’m delighted to see Capital performing so well in London and across the UK. This demonstrates the network’s growing popularity and reinforces our strategy of national brands delivered locally. Congratulations to the entire team.”

Heart
Heart took third place in London in terms of weekly reach with 1.93 million, ahead of Bauer-owned Kiss 100's 1.87 million.

Heart London's breakfast pairing of Jamie Theakston and Harriet Scott slipped from second to fourth in the capital with 814,000 listeners, overtaken by Magic 105.4's Neil Fox, with 848,000, and Kiss 100's Rickie, Melvin and Charlie, who were listened to by 838,000 people.

At Heart, 11 of the 14 stations are down in numbers (including London), with only Heart Solent and Heart Four Counties attracting new listeners. In the East Midlands, where Heart is only available digitally, the station has an extra 15,000 listeners this quarter. Nationally, 7.5 million listeners tune in every week.

XFM
The biggest faller in the Capital was another Global station, Xfm, which was down 6.7% on the previous three months and 23.3% year on year to 406,000.

Classic FM
Had a weekly reach of 5.36 million, but fell marginally on the previous three months, down 6.2% year on year. Classic FM is down very slightly, but when you have 5.3 million listeners, it’s hardly noticeable. Xfm in both London and Manchester also have a small drop of listeners this quarter.

Choice FM
enjoyed a rise in total audience, with 778,000 people now listening every week. In London alone the figure has dropped from 562,000 to 543,000.

Richard Park, Director of Broadcasting at Global Radio said:

“A good solid performance from our Global stations. We finish the year with our three networks enjoying growth, particularly with the amount of time listeners are spending on our channels.”

GMG Radio

GMG Radio has seen a year-on-year increase across Real and Smooth Radio, taking it to 5.6 million adult listeners, but the figure is down from 5.7m in Q3. The figures include its London station losing 25% of its audience in the latest quarter.

Smooth Radio
Dropped 2.4% year on year and fell 25.5% on the quarter to 456,000. Smooth's national network had a weekly audience of 3.31 million, down 0.4% on the quarter but up 7.5% year on year.

Nationally, the station remains popular with 3.3 million listeners, 1 million of those listening on digital radio each week. The figures make it the UK’s second most listened to national commercial radio station. Simon Bates is celebrating his first year on Smooth Radio Breakfast and has grown the breakfast audience by 69,000 to almost 1.4 million a week year-on-year

Real Radio
All but one of the Real Radio stations lost listeners this quarter with Real Scotland being the exception. The Glasgow based station added an extra 26,000 listeners taking it back to the same audience it had at the beginning of the year.

Both former Rock Radio stations were also down in listener numbers this quarter after a re-brand to Real XS

GMG Radio Chief Executive Stuart Taylor said:

“To grow our listener number by 7.2% year on year in a competitive and volatile environment, is a fantastic result, confirming not only the appetite for Smooth Radio`s unique sound but also the strength of the Real Radio brand. I am so proud of our talented teams and really pleased the hard work of the last year is bearing fruit. Simon Bates on Smooth Breakfast is proving a huge success and our multi-platform approach has delivered a significant 17% growth in digital listening.”

Orion Media

Orion’s stations continued to lose listeners ahead of their upcoming re-brand.
BRMB had one of its worst ever audience with 331,000 listeners, from 359,000 in the previous quarter

Wyvern and Mercia are also down quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year

Beacon saw a small increase.
All four stations will change to Free Radio later this year.

Celedor

Midwest Radio has recorded a great year-on-year increase from 18% to 24% reach,

The Breeze in Portsmouth increases hours by 61% and listeners by 26% since last survey

Other notable figures

Town 102 in Ipswich enjoying its best ever reach, hours and share,

Radio Pembrokeshire achieving 50% weekly reach.
JACK fm Bristol continues to attract a higher audience after its re-brand from Original

Channel 103 gets its highest ever weekly reach at 59% and 11.7 average hours, and U105 is celebrating an increase of 69,000 listeners taking the station to 211,000.

Rugby FM and Touch FM Stafford (sister stations) have both gained listeners

The Wolf in Wolverhampton increased the amount of people listening by 52%, with an increase of listening hours of 49% year on year.
96.2 The Revolution in Manchester lost 11,000 of its 48,000 listeners

Minster FM in York had another increase in weekly reach, as well as a 23% uplift in hours since last reporting period.

To see all of the rajar results see here: http://www.rajar.co.uk/listening/quarterly_listening.php

Achieving National Broadcast Coverage

nospam@example.com (Russell Goldsmith) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 12:17:28 +0100

Each Wednesday at markettiers4dc, we run an internal 'Lunch & Learn' session where one of the teams shares with the rest of us some key industry knowledge, recent successful case studies, or simply tips on how best to do our job of broadcast communications!

This week, our media liaison team presented an excellent session on how best to achieve National Radio coverage for our clients. Given they have already delivered close to 600 items of national coverage in 2011, they probably know what they're talking about! And as we believe knowledge should be free and shared, we wanted to provide you with their slides too.

The presentation includes information about the opportunities on:

Radio 4 - including Farming Today, Today Programme, World at One, PM, Woman's Hour, and You and Yours
5Live - including the Morning Report, 5Live Breakfast, Derbyshire, Fogarty and Bacon
Radio2 - including Evans, Vine and Mayo
Radio1 - Moyles, Fearne, James and Mills including studio cams - Our campaign with Elmo was billed as Greg James' best guest ever - you can see it on webcam at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBiEMPbbERU - Also information on Newsbeat
Sky News Radio - including type of stories and syndication
Working with GNS
Business and the BBC

To request a copy of the slides, simply email info@markettiers4dc.com with your name and company details and if you would also like us to come and present them to your team as a one hour workhsop, then just get in touch to book at a cost of £50/attendee - all proceeds go to our JustGiving page to raise money for Teenage Cancer Trust - http://www.justgiving.com/markettiers4dc2011

Full Throttle

nospam@example.com (Russell Goldsmith) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 11:57:45 +0100

August 2011 saw a landmark win for markettiers4dc when Nissan International, the European subsidiary of global giant Nissan Motor Co Ltd appointed the agency to handle broadcast services on a number of high profile projects and events across Europe, Africa, Middle East and India.

The work, on a preferred supplier basis, began almost immediately, focused around behind the scenes video production for Japan’s second biggest car company and creating and capturing content around key industry announcements from the Frankfurt International Motor Show. Forthcoming projects are expected to include product launches, road testing and live events as well as an emphasis on the Zero Emission segment.

The brand, which employs 150,000 globally and is a major employer in the North East of England, appointed Markettiers4dc following a competitive pitch. “They demonstrated strategic brand insight and creativity as well as a proven international broadcast expertise” according to Fernando Menezes, General Manager, Corporate Communications for Europe, Africa, Middle East and India.

The win builds on the agencies growing reputation in the automotive sector including project work for Nissan Motor (GB) Ltd.

markettiers4dc unites nations for the UN Decade on Biodiversity

nospam@example.com (Russell Goldsmith) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 11:33:16 +0100

When the United Nations asked markettiers4dc to provide broadcast support for its international Decade on Biodiversity, the agency brought the global environmental movement together by hosting a live, interactive web TV show direct from New York's Manhattan on Tuesday 20th September.

By inviting viewers to email questions to two senior UN figures about its plans to curb biodiversity loss, interest in the show surpassed expectations among online environmental and ecological communities, as well as international news services and educational establishments.

Among the 28 outlets and organisations providing links or streaming the programme on their sites were the BBC, The Independent, The Huffington Post, Oxfam, WWF, Friends of the Earth, ZSL London Zoo, a host of specialist biodiversity sites and, representing academia on both sides of the pond, Oxford and Yale universities.

The Twitter interest was phenomenal with tweets generated from locations including the US, Australia, Japan, France and Canada and a tweet reach of 361,944 followers. The 30 minute show included a video message of support from actor and United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for Biodiversity, Edward Norton.

RAJAR DATA RELEASE – QUARTER 2, 2011

nospam@example.com (Howard Kosky) — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 07:41:10 +0100

The following information has been taken directly from RAJAR's press release this morning

Number tuning in to radio reaches new high

91.7% of UK population tune in to radio every week – new high*
Total radio listening hours reach 1,076 million per week
Listening via a digital receiver reaches 26.9% of all radio listening
Access to a DAB receiver up 11.1% year on year to 20.2 million adults
7.5 million (14.4%) of adults listen via a digitally enabled TV, up 11% year on year
Internet listening hours up by 15.4% year on year
Mobile phone listening up 16.1% year on year

The number of people listening to radio reached a new high in Q2, 2011, as 47.6 million adults or 91.7% of the population (15+) tuned in to their favourite stations each week†, it was announced today by RAJAR Limited (Radio Joint Audience Research). This figure is up by over three-quarters of a million listeners (845,000 listeners) in comparison with the same period in 2010 and exceeds the previous high of 47.3 million last quarter (Q1, 2011). The total number of radio listening hours has also increased year on year to 1,076 million hours per week or 22.6 hours per listener (c.f. 1,030 million hours in Q2, 2010 and 1,058 million hours in Q1, 2011).

Radio listening via digital platforms
Listening to radio via a digital platform in terms of weekly reach† has increased by 10.7% year on year, with 22.1 million people now tuning in to radio via a digitally enabled receiver (DAB, DTV, internet) each week (up from 20 million in Q2, 2010).

This increase is reflected in the digital listening hours for Q2, 2011 which are up 14.3%, from 253 million hours in Q2, 2010 to 289 million hours this quarter. DAB radio continues to retain its position as the most popular device when it comes to listening to digital radio, accounting for 63.8% of all digital hours, however listening via DTV (digital television) and internet have both continued to rise year on year, (hours up by 23.7% and 15.4% respectively) albeit from a smaller base.

DAB hours are 185 million (162m in Q2, 2010 – up 13.6%)
DTV hours are 52 million (42m in Q2, 2010 – up 23.7%)
Internet hours are 34 million (30m in Q2, 2010 – up 15.4%)

The share of radio listening via a digital platform accounts for more than one quarter of all radio listening increasing from 24.6% in Q2, 2010 to 26.9% in Q2, 2011, while remaining relatively stable quarter on quarter (c.f. 26.5% in Q1, 2011). DAB listening increased its share from 15.8% in Q2, 2010 to 17.2% in Q2, 2011, while the share of DTV listening increased from 4.1% in Q2, 2010 to reach 4.8% this quarter; and internet listening, which broke the 3% barrier for the first time in Q4, 2010, currently stands at 3.2% for Q2, 2011.

This is the highest weekly reach recorded since records began in 1992, irrespective of methodological changes in 1999 and 2007.
† Weekly reach is the number of people (adults 15+) in the UK who listened to a radio station for at least five minutes in the course
of an average week during the quarter.

Access to a DAB receiver
Access to a DAB receiver is up 11.1% year on year and is almost three times the level of five years ago. In Q2, 2011 almost two in five of the population (38.9%), or 20.2 million adults (aged 15+) claimed to live in a household which has a DAB set (c.f. 18.2 million in Q2, 2010 and 7.6 million in Q2, 2006).

Radio listening via mobile phone
Radio listening via mobile phone has increased by 16.1% year on year with 14.5% of adults aged 15+ in Q2, 2011 saying they have listened in this way (c.f. 12.5% in Q2, 2010). In the 25+ demographic 11.4% say they have listened to the radio via their mobile phone, up from 9.2% in Q2, 2010. In the 15-24 demographic nearly a third or 31% of those surveyed now claim to have listened to the radio in this way with 14.8% stating they listen at least once a week and 3.3% stating they listen every day.

Detailed data and individual radio station data, for both BBC and Commercial Radio stations, are available on the RAJAR web site at www.rajar.co.uk from 00.01hrs, Thursday August 4, 2011.

new product placement rules on British TV

nospam@example.com (Howard Kosky) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 09:41:00 +0000

So today sees the start of the new product placement rules on British TV.

I can’t help but wonder what impact this will really have for the TV landscape and communications professionals.

Some reports suggest as much as up to 5% of total TV revenue will come via this route, but at the lower end some are predicting £35m per year . . . so is it really worth it . . . and what impact will it have on the communications and editorial sectors that focus on delivering the subliminal messaging of brand placement.

So as of today lets all be looking out for the P sign (above) at the start of a programme, which if based on current information would suggest only a few programmes as yet, and means that for now the only reference I’m going to see for a P will be if I’m watching reports of years gone by from decade of Bob Holness and Blockbusters and ‘Can I have a P please Bob’

As a broadcast evangelist it is my job to digest all information and understand it, and as such share it also so if you have any queries or want some information on how it could work or impact on you and your brand please feel free to email me at TVplacement@markettiers4dc.com

Take The (You) Tube to reach your Audience

nospam@example.com (Russell Goldsmith) — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 20:38:04 +0000

It’s incredible to think that you only have to go back to the start of 2005 to find a world without YouTube, yet now, according to Bruce Daisley, the company’s Head of Sales in the UK, 24 hours of video is uploaded to the site every minute.

That’s quite a bit to watch! In fact, 42% of all time spent online includes exposure to online videos with 6.65bn videos having been viewed in September 2010 by 35.1m viewers in the UK spending over 561m hours watching them (comScore). And if you think that’s a lot, Cisco say that by 2013, 90% of internet bandwidth will be video.

We can therefore take it as read that as a brand, to communicate with your audience, you will need to either advertise around video content, or produce it yourselves – and if you know anything about markettiers4dc, you’ll know which of those two camps we sit in (that’s the one that says produce your own by the way!).

Now, sometimes (actually, quite often), when it comes to broadcast PR & marketing, we do something at markettiers4dc that no one else has done before and so we just have to shout about it. So is the case with the latest addition to our armoury in terms of ways to engage with your audience through YouTube, by creating a truly interactive retail channel for your brand.

OK, we’re not exactly the first to create a custom retail channel on YouTube – successful examples from 2010 include French Connection and Waitrose. However, what we’ve managed to achieve, by working with the team at Google, is to integrate our LinkTo(TM) technology that has proved successful in increasing average shopping baskets for brands such as Jaeger, into the YouTube environment. We will be launching this in the next few months for Start Rite Shoes.

Whereas the likes of French Connection have to work with the limitations of YouTube’s annotations, we can integrate all the functionality of LinkTo into the channel that no one else has currently done.

What does this mean exactly? Well, we can track any product as it moves across the video, making it interactive so that a viewer can click on it for more information, pausing the video, so if interested, can then add it into their shopping basket on your ecommerce site, before returning to the video to carry on viewing and hopefully shopping for more items. The product data that they see when they click on the item can be called in live from an RSS feed, so if you are running promotions, the prices can be updated automatically. Jaeger, whose catwalk videos we make interactive on their website, have seen average shopping baskets increase by over 300% from people shopping through the LinkTo video, so we know it works!

We can also integrate data collection forms into the interactive hot spots, so if you want to use the video to build a mailing list, we can help do that too. Basically, there isn’t much we can’t do, so challenge us and send a brief to russ@markettiers4dc.com.

So great! You’ve decided to produce some video content, let’s assume the most engaging, exciting, funny, informative video on your chosen topic. You’ve uploaded it to YouTube, perhaps in your retail channel. The question is how do you get anyone to watch it? Well that’s where we recommend you use every network available to you on our Tube map analogy (below).

Broadcast, online and social media are living breathing interconnecting networks of channels that can be taken advantage of to take your message to your audience, or drive your audience to you.

Long gone are the days when your broadcast strategy should be all about a ‘radio day’ to raise awareness of your campaign – in fact, it never should have been just that – but particularly now if you have video collateral that you want people to see.

The good news is that any one of our tube lines will enable you to engage with your audience, but just imagine if you had the time and budget to use all of them when relevant. Integrating your broadcast and social media activity is when you will get the best return on your investment by driving advocacy through the many seamless connections available to reach your audience.

The eighth wonder of the world - Jordan Tourism

nospam@example.com () — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 12:03:24 +0000

With destinations like Dubai becoming perhaps a little passé in the eyes of some seasoned travellers, Jordan Tourism wanted to capitalise on the UK consumer’s desire to experience something new and captivating for their next holiday. The core aim was to demonstrate how desirable, accessible and exciting a Jordan holiday is and raise awareness of the quality and variety of holidays available – from luxurious, to intrepid, to historical, to family and in the process, position Jordan as the ‘eighth wonder of the World’.

Sound Creative, part of the markettiers4dc group of companies delivered an integrated, cross-platform, broadcast campaign, fronted by famous Jordanian export and TV favourite Nadia Sawalha. As one of the famous Sawalha acting family, Nadia has starred in the likes of Eastenders, is a regular on Loose Women and even won Celebrity Masterchef.

As well as her obvious family credentials enabling her to act as an authority on promoting Jordan – it
was Nadia’s sultry and unmistakeable tones that made her the perfect choice to voice a series
of ‘Postcards from Jordan’ radio programming features in which she enthused, evangelised and
inspired the audience to consider one of the many types of holiday available in Jordan. Each feature
focused on a different style of holiday available.

The features formed the central element of the branded content at the heart of a month long partnership with Smooth Radio London and Smooth Radio Northwest. Sound selected the Smooth
Radio stations owing to their programming style fitting the messaging tone, their proximity to major
airports carrying flights to Jordan and because of their highly relevant ABC1, travel-loving audience.

The series of Nadia’s features were ‘wrapped’ with Smooth Radio and Jordan Tourism co-branding
to leverage powerful station endorsement and to ensure standout from commercial messaging.

To maximise the reach amongst Smooth Radio listeners and to ensure they understood the core
message of breadth of holidays available, the features were broadcast with high frequency,
across all key shows over a sustained period of 4 weeks, taking the activity beyond a traditional
radio promotion execution.

Each features’ out-tag also contained the callto-action, driving the listener online to further
engage with key destination information and to enter a competition for a chance to win one of two
all-expenses paid trips to Jordan. With the entry point being housed online, we were able to deliver
brand engagement visibility to the client and also provide valuable data capture for future Jordan
Tourism marketing.

The advertorial and competition was promoted in the Smooth Radio newsletter which went out to
over 46,000 subscribed listeners.

Alongside the partnership with Smooth Radio, Sound supported the campaign with broadcast
PR tactics to deliver editorial coverage for Jordan Tourism across highly relevant online media. We
produced a live, interactive WebTV show featuring a panel of Jordan experts - Matthew Teller, travel
writer and author of Rough Guide to Jordan and David Symes from Jordan Tourist Board. Matthew
and David were steered by our presenter throughout the live show, discussing the wonders of a
Jordanian trip and answering both pre-registered and live online user questions.

The show was pre-promoted across a number of travel related sites and portals, where we
encouraged registration of questions and created the appointment to view live. The show itself
was simulcast live across the sites and went on to become on-demand content, extending the
campaign reach.

The on-demand version of the WebTV show was also utilised as further content for the Smooth
Radio partnership, being placed within the online advertorial alongside the competition, complementing the on-air activity.

Motoring Onward

nospam@example.com () — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 09:52:38 +0000

2010 was a fascinating year for the UK motor industry, with the end of the Government scrappage sales scheme, a major electric vehicle (EV) production announcement and some startling sales figures for brands at either end of the car market. Markettiers4dc helped to tell just some of these compelling stories through its unrivalled broadcast relationships and expertise.

UK becomes electric car epicentre
markettiers4dc were in the driving seat for the biggest automotive announcement of 2010 as Nissan announced it would be producing the world’s first affordable mass produced zero emission car - the LEAF - at their acclaimed Sunderland plant.

The formal announcement from Government & Nissan’s Global VP, Andy Palmer placed the UK and the North East region at the heart of the electric vehicle revolution signaling one of the biggest landmarks in British motoring history.

With just days separating the project green light and the public announcement, markettiers4dc immediately undertook an audit of existing B-Roll, repackaging it to ensure all broadcasters could showcase the LEAF in its entirety, accentuating functionality and ‘normality’ to dispel commonly held ideas of what electric cars look like. Three key Nissan executives were strategically placed around the UK (accompanied by their own markettiers4dc team and crew) to maximise all filming & coverage opportunities

The announcement and broadcast coverage thereof dominated the news agenda throughout the day despite other major government backed motoring announcements airing the same day. Nissan and the new LEAF garnered some of the strongest brand-owned automotive coverage seen in recent years with highlights including reports from Sky News, BBC One (1 o’clock News, 6 o’clock News), ITV Evening News featuring interviews beside the production line at Sunderland, down the line interviews to BBC Breakfast, GMTV, BBC World News, ITN, continuous rolling bulletins and B-Roll on all key 24 hour news channels plus a combined radio audience just shy of 40m. Working collaboratively with a forward-thinking client on a landmark story, markettiers4dc and Nissan ensured very few households missed the good news that Britain would be leading the electric car revolution into 2011 and beyond.

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Communicates Sales Success Story
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the pinnacle luxury brand, entrusted markettiers4dc with handling the global TV and radio coverage for their Annual Results announcement on Monday 10th January 2011.

Sales of the brand had more than doubled from the previous year, setting a new record despite a widespread sales slump among other companies in the automotive sector.

We set up 13 top-tier broadcast interviews for Chief Executive, Torsten Müller-Ötvös, who based himself at our London studios for much of the day where he also undertook several press interviews.

The day was the culmination of a comprehensive four-week media relations exercise which saw us brief all the key global business broadcasters with tailored storylines and provide them with B-Roll of the Rolls-Royce Phantom and Ghost models on the road and on the company’s Goodwood production line.

As part of our outreach we ensured the CEO was live on CNN’s World Business Today, CNBC Europe, Sky News’ Jeff Randall Live and BBC World TV’s World Business Report, while he did down the line interviews from markettiers4dc’s own TV studio into Bloomberg TV’s On The Move, the 24-hour German news and business news channel NTV, BBC TV News and City 7 TV in Dubai’s
Inside Business.

We also filmed at Rolls-Royce’s Mayfair dealership with China’s CCTV and leading German station ZDF, while Reuters filmed a package with a Phantom which they subsequently fed to all their 400 TV station clients worldwide plus online and print
news subscribers.

The CEO’s four radio interviews were with Radio 4’s Today programme, Radio 5’s Wake Up To Money, BBC World Service Radio’s World Business News and BBC Scotland’s business news.

Meanwhile we set up ITV News’ China Correspondent, Angus Walker, to film at Rolls-Royce’s Beijing dealership and ITV Meridian, invited to film at Goodwood, ran the story in their main evening and late night news programmes.

We knew this was a big story,” commented Nigel Wonnacott product PR manager Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, “And we needed an agency to reflect that with coverage in all regions in which Rolls-Royce is represented. Markettiers4dc made that happen. We were delighted with the results.”

2010 was a fascinating year for the UK motor industry, with the end of the Government scrappage sales scheme, a major electric vehicle (EV) production announcement and some startling sales figures for brands at either end of the car market. Markettiers4dc helped to tell just some of these compelling stories through its unrivalled broadcast relationships and expertise.

Driving Broadcast Into The Virtual World

nospam@example.com () — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 17:56:30 +0000

The world of broadcast technology continues to evolve. And whilst it’s often to the benefit of the operators and editors, at markettiers4dc our focus is the exploitation of technological advancements for our clients.

Broadcasting online from our studios and outside locations, has for a number of years been a staple of our output; putting clients much more in control of the media messaging, whilst remaining within the editorial boundaries of the media owners we work with. And this month we took it a step further by unveiling our new virtual studio.

For brands, building a bespoke studio for each broadcast in a traditional sense would be cost prohibitive, but with our new virtual broadcasting environments this is now a truly viable option.

As well as being able to offer our clients a number of standardised virtual sets, from business sets to softer lifestyle sets, we can also create tailor made environments. Using this exciting technology means that you can completely transform the size of the studio and move from around the set in a single frame. There is also the opportunity to combine virtual elements with real world-spaces – there is literally no limit on how your brand can be integrated within the set without distraction to the audience or your key messages.

As Scott Jackson, Head of Production puts it: "We’re really excited at the launch of our Virtual Studio. We’ve been championing the opportunity for brands to create their own broadcast content for online for many years. However, they can now take the studio environment to a whole new level by easily customising the set so that it becomes individually crafted for their needs. Whether the intention is for external or internal communications, this is something we encourage all of our clients to explore."

As well as the virtual studio, we’re embracing new digital work flows which allows us to incorporate tapeless production and output to either HD or standard definition, depending on the requirements.

These new developments will completely transform the level of scope that our studio facility provides and will see our clients firmly at the forefront of broadcasting.

For more information contact Scott Jackson or Emily Conway on 020 7253 8888.

X-Factor and Ofcom

nospam@example.com (Russell Goldsmith) — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 10:51:46 +0000

Last week I was very kindly asked by Stephen Waddington of Speed Communications to write a guest post on his blog ahead of the X-Factor final

You can read it http://www.speedcommunications.com/blogs/wadds/2010/12/12/guest-post-markettiers4dc%E2%80%99s-russell-goldsmith-on-x-factor-and-ofcom/
And congrats to Matt Cardle!

Q2 2010 RAJAR RESULTS

nospam@example.com (James Erskine) — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 07:35:00 +0100

The Rajar reports are the radio industry’s version of the TV BARB panel. A panel of listeners complete a daily questionnaire recording which radio stations they listen to and for how long. These results are published on a quarterly basis. From Q2 2007 listeners have been able to tell RAJAR if they listened on AM/FM, DAB Digital Radio, Digital TV (Sky/Freeview/Cable) or via the Internet.

General Overview

Radio achieved a record reach of 46.8 million people, or 91% of the UK adult population, listening to a station for at least five minutes during the course of an average week. Commercial radio's reach was 32.8 million people – this is the 4th consecutive quarter of growth for commercial radio and its highest reach in the last decade.

Commercial radio increased its share from 41.3% in Q1 to 43.2% in Q2. In contrast the BBC saw its share fall from 56.5% in Q1 to 54.6% in Q2. The BBC’s reach fell from 34.88m to 34.59m.

National Radio

The three National commercial stations all had good results. talkSPORT benefitted from their World Cup coverage, recording their highest ever weekly reach for Q2, and their second highest reach of all time (2.5 million reach). They recorded record figures for 15-34men (744,000 reach, up 14% yoy), abc1ads (1.4m, up 8%) & abc1men (1.1m).

Classic FM is still the largest commercial station in the UK with 5.7m weekly listeners – this is up on Q1 but down slightly year on year. Absolute Radio’s network reach is back up to over 2 million listeners – the highest since January 2009. This is still 500,000 behind talkSPORT but is up 11% on Q1 & 8% yoy. They benefitted from their World Cup activity fronted by Baddiel & Skinner – this bodes well for their new Premiership coverage in the upcoming season.

The London Market

Magic 105.4’s crown has slipped as the largest London reaching station, as Heart 106.2 have pipped them to the post with 2.185 million listeners per week vs. 2.046 million. However, Magic still put in a very strong performance seeing their London market share grow to 6.4% vs. Hearts 5.1% to put them in top position. Heart recorded their highest ever reach.

The interesting story is not the battle for the top spot but Kiss 100’s performance; they are 11.8% up year on year with a reach of 1.848 million and an impressive growth in share from 4.1% to 5.6%. 95.8 Capital Radio grew their reach by 21,000. Not such a positive result however for their share as they have slipped from 6% to 4.9%.

LBC saw a growth of 82,000 listeners; their reach is their highest since 1994. Absolute’s London reach has grown 17% and hours are up 12% on quarter.

Reach (000’s) Q2 2010 Market Share % Q2 2010

1 Heart 106.2 FM 2,185 1 Magic 105.4 6.4
2 Magic 105.4 2,046 2 Kiss 100 5.6
3 95.8 Capital FM 1,921 3 Heart 106.2 5.1
4 Kiss 100 1,848 4 LBC 97.3 5.0
5 Classic FM (London) 1,308 5 95.8 Captial FM 4.9
6 LBC 97.3 960 6 Classic FM (London) 4.3
7 Total Absolute (Ldn) 821 7 Total Absolute (Ldn) 2.8
8 talkSPORT (London) 613 8 talkSPORT (London) 1.8
9 XFM 104.9 553 9 XFM 104.9 1.4
10 Smooth Radio 415 10 Gold London 1.3

London Breakfast

The Sony award-winning Capital breakfast show has once again retained the number one spot at breakfast in the London commercial market; however the gap between their rivals is narrowing with Heart and Kiss hot on Capital’s heels. Heart, Kiss and Magic all saw impressive increases in reach whilst LBC remained flat at 576,000 weekly listeners.

What is interesting is the market share for London breakfast shows, the playing field much like the reach is evening out in stark comparison to the previous quarter.

REACH 15+ (6-9 am) MARKET SHARE 15+ (6-9 am)
Q2 2010 (000’s) Q2 2010 (%)
1 95.8 Capital Radio 933 1 95.8 Capital Radio 5.7
2 Heart 106.2 FM 925 2 LBC 97.3 5.5
3 Kiss 100 903 3 Kiss 100 5.4
4 Magic 105.4 839 4 Heart 106.2 FM 5.2
5 LBC 97.3 576 5 Magic 105.4 4.6

Kiss FM’s Rickie, Melvin and Charlie breakfast show has gone from strength to strength with reach up from 656,000 to 903,000 listeners.

Local Radio

Global Radio, the UK’s largest commercial radio group, continues to dominate the top 10 commercial station networks with Heart in pole position once more – it is unchanged in terms of market share on quarter, at 5.8%, and down 0.1% on the year, having achieved 5.9% in Q2 2009. Heart East Midlands in particular is at its highest level at 19 per cent reach now with 423,000 listeners, up from 350,000 last quarter.

Bauer Radio now reaches a record audience for the network, with 13 million listeners each week. The Magic network now reaches a total audience of 3.7m across the UK – up 2.6% on year, and the Kiss network now reaches 3.7m listeners – up 13% on year. Big City network recorded its highest reach in over 3 years, with 4.8m people now tuning in every week (up 5% on the quarter) and 42m listening hours (up 2% on the quarter). Notably CFM has increased from 33 per cent reach to 43 per cent reach year-on-year, and Radio Aire in Leeds jumped from 11 per cent reach to 16 per cent suddenly, adding almost 50,000 listeners.

GMG has seen positive results, with the group reporting almost five million listeners in total and Smooth Radio North East, North West and Glasgow recording their biggest ever audience figures in what will be their last quarter with local programmes. All real radio stations except Yorkshire are up, with 2.38 million adults tuning into Real Radio network each week (up 100,000 on the quarter) to consume 21.5 million hours each week (up 200,000 on the quarter).

The 10 commercial station networks in terms of % market share:

Station Q2 2010 Q1 2010 Q22009
1 Heart Network (UK) (H) 5.8 5.8 5.9
2 Classic FM (Q) 3.8 3.7 3.9
3 Galaxy Network (UK) (H) 2.7 2.6 2.5
4 Total Magic (Q) 2.4 2.4 2.5
5 Total Real Radio (H) 2.1 2.1 2.1
6 Total Smooth Radio (H) 2.1 2.1 2.1
7 talkSPORT (Q) 1.7 1.6 1.8
8 Total Kiss Network (H) 1.9 1.7 1.9
9 Total LBC (UK) (H) 1.3 1.3 1.1
10 Total Absolute Radio Network
(Q) 1.4 1.4 1.3

Digital

Digital posted strong results this quarter, with listening share up 17% yoy to 24.6%, weekly reach up 11% to 20 million, listening hours up 17% to 253 million per week, and DAB ownership up 7.6%, to over 18 million adults. DAB radio is still the most popular device to listen to digital radio on, but DTV and Internet listening have risen significantly. Listening via digital TV is now at 4.1%, with internet at 2.9%. Radio listening via mobile phone remains steady with 12.5% of adults listening via their mobile; in the younger 15-24 year demographic, this rises to 29.8%. Many radio stations are now providing Smartphone apps to enhance the mobile phone listening experience, and a recent RAJAR study found that 20% of all Smartphone owners have a radio app.

Absolute Radio continues to outperform the digital market average, with 45.7% of their listening being on a digital platform. Absolute 80s posted another strong set of results, increasing by just over 9% in reach (to 288,000) and hours. Absolute Classic Rock also performed strongly, also increasing reach and hours by 9%. Planet Rock increased reach by 4% to its highest ever reach of 718,000. Podcasts also proved very popular, with Absolute having 3 million podcasts downloaded in June. Absolute expect to see further growth in Q3, as Absolute 90s and Absolute Extra are added to their figures.

Over at Bauer, 3 of their digital stations remain in the top 10. The Hits was up 8% with over 1.1m listeners and along with Smash Hits on 990,000 listeners, are the 2 most listened to commercial digital only stations. Heat also had a very strong result, with 50.3% rise in reach since Q1. NME Radio, recently at risk from complete closure, has doubled its audience share with a rise in overall hours to 1.3m. New owners Town and Country Broadcasting were pleased with the results, seeing them as “a solid base with a strong audience profile”.

Over on the BBC, 6 Music saw another very strong result following news that the BBC Trust has reprieved its closure – it is now the largest digital radio station in the UK. Its reach increased by 100.7% yoy to almost 1.2m, whilst hours increased by 31% to over 10m, making it only marginally smaller than Radio 3. BBC Asian Network, which is still facing closure, also posted a rise in listenership with an increase in reach of 3.8% to 437,000 listeners. Other BBC stations didn’t fare so well, with Radio 5 Live Sports Extra being down 19.1% yoy despite the World Cup, and 1 Xtra’s audience down 5.4% yoy to 600,000.

Consistent growth in digital listening is key to the digital radio switchover agenda over the next few years, as one of the criteria the government has set for switchover is for digital to account for at least 50% of all radio listening.

Reach 15+ (000s)
QonQ YonY Q2 2010 Q1 2010 Q2 2009
1 BBC 6 Music (Q) 16.7 100.7 1,194 1,023 595
2 The Hits (Q) 7.9 -8.4 1,138 1,055 1,243
3 Smash Hits Radio (Q) 16.1 -14.3 990 853 1,155
4 BBC7 (Q) -9.5 13.8 949 1,049 834
5 Planet Rock (Q) 3.5 1.3 718 694 709
6 Heat (Q) 50.3 17.5 672 447 572
7 1Xtra from the BBC (Q) -9.5 -5.4 600 663 634
8 Jazz (Q) -1.7 -3.9 463 471 482
9 BBC Asian Network 22.4 3.8 437 357 421
10 NME (Q) 11.9 17.7 253 226 215

BBC

As UK radio listening surged to its highest level for more than a decade in the three months to the end of June, the BBC also benefited from the period that included the general election campaign and alliance-building period, and the World Cup.

Reach (000’s) Q2 2010 Q2 2009
BBC Radio 2 13729 13424
BBC Radio 1 11810 11342
BBC Radio 4 10403 9999
Five Live 6763 6415
BBC Radio 3 1858 2021

Radio 5 Live reported its biggest audience since its launch in 1990, with a weekly reach of 6.76 million listeners, up 5.4% year on year and 4.4% quarter on quarter. Its share was 4.8%, and clearly benefited from both the political and sporting news being at the top of many listener’s agendas.

Radio 4 broke through the 10 million listener barrier, with a record average weekly audience of 10.4 million between April and June, with its best ever audiences for shows including Today, PM and The Archers. The station's weekly audience was up 4% year on year and 3.7% on the last quarter, with a share of 12.5%. This was Radio 4's best quarterly figure since Rajar's new methodology in 1999; the station had a 12.5% share.

Radio 4's Today pulled in a record 6.98 million weekly listeners. Record audiences were also achieved by other Radio 4 news shows including the Six O'Clock News and PM.

Radio 1 pulled in a record audience of 11.81 million listeners, up 4.1% year on year and 0.6% quarter on quarter. The station's share was 9.3%. Chris Moyles

Radio 2 attracted 13.73 million listeners on average each week, up 2.3% year on year but down 5.8% quarter on quarter. Its share was 15.9%: Chris Evans didn’t contribute to this, having lost 1 million of Radio 2’s Breakfast listeners Q-o-Q, but he’s still doing better than Sir Tel. His figures are still the second highest total ever recorded for an individual radio programme with a weekly reach of 8.25m (down for 9.53m in Q1).

There was less positive news at BBC Radio 3, which reported an average audience of 1.86 million, down 8.1% year on year and 8.2% quarter on quarter.

Summary

This was a great set of results for radio in general and especially for commercial radio. Radio listening has increased to its 2nd consecutive all time high, and the BBC/Commercial split has swung 2 points in favour of commercial radio’s favour.

The individual success stories are talkSPORT and their hugely popular World Cup coverage, Kiss FM who are now No.2 in London in terms of share, BBC 6 Music becoming the most popular digital radio station in the UK and the BBC talk stations, with Radio 4 & Five Live capitalising on the popularity of the World Cup and General Election.

The Demise Of Truly Local Radio – Is it such a bad thing?

nospam@example.com (James Erskine) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 10:47:00 +0100

I have a vested interest in local radio, that I should make clear.

On first hearing about the news of Heart (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jun/21/heart-global-radio-restructure) , Smooth (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jun/29/smooth-radio-merge-regional-stations) and even Gold reducing the amount of local and regional programming I was more than a little upset.

So why do I like local and regional radio programming?

Firstly it allows us across the markettiers4dc Group, including Sound Creative in particular, where I work, to upweight local messages across any number of the campaigns we deliver.

Secondly it was responsible for some of the greatest days of my life as a child. You see, it was local radio, in my case Reading's 210 FM, that at the slightest hint of snow we would gather round the radio with a view to establishing if school was cancelled and we had a day of placing carrotts on the faces of snow men.

Local radio is at the very heart of many communities and is not purely responsible of alliviating children of their educational duties.

A prime example of where local radio was placed at the very heart of a community can be found back in 1997 at the Grand National. The event was cancelled after an IRA bomab scare threat (http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/content/articles/2006/12/01/local_history_aintree_1997_feature.shtml). I have never been lucky enough to go to Aintree but I am assured by friends that the car park is in the middle of the track. So you had a large number of people in Liverpool without anywhere to stay, without their bags, cars and belongings. You also had the added headache of most hotels completely full because it was Grand National season.

A combination of the people of Liverpool's good nature and BBC Radio Merseyside offered a response to be remembered: The radio station set up a sort of 'crisis swap shop' (my term, not theirs). Those stranded in Liverpool were able to call into BBC Radio Merseyside and station what they needed, “ ...... we are two couples after a bed for the night – our car is stranded in Aintree, you see” – and listeners from BBC Radio Merseyside would call up and offer spare rooms, lifts from Aintree and even a change of clothes for the destitute race goers.

So what will happen now local radio is being reduced?

Well let’s be clear, whilst the amount of local content is being reduced local radio is not being taken away completely. Heart will still give us 18 Regional Stations and of those all will have a local Breakfast, Afternoon DriveTime show and a weekend breakfast show.

Further to that those stations that aren’t owned by Global Radio and GMG are sticking slightly more rigidly to their original promise of local performance.

The changes will result in more ‘networked programming’ , however. This is where ‘less local radio’ should reap rewards in the form of large audiences, particularly for commercial radio. The Big top 40 is a networked show that runs across 145 local stations and still reaches more adults than the top 40 countdown on BBC Radio One.

Networked programming allows commercial radio to secure national big name talent and deliver it to listeners on a local level.

Costs of local radio should be reduced and, once we are out of the current economic situation, commercial radio should be able to use this money to invest in better programming.

It is also worth noting that there are ways to use regional radio on a local level that we have been employing for a little while: My colleagues within markettiers4dc will talk to you about local newsrooms which all feed into regional hubs. In Sound Creative we are able to employ local transmitters for pre-recorded trails to drive listeners to an event or make listeners aware of a localised message. Even with national commercial station Classic FM we have placed trails on the London only transmitter to drive footfall and traffic to the website of a London only store.

So is the demise of local radio such a bad thing?

We may get better programming and commercial radio should get stronger. The markettiers4dc Group may have to work harder to secure effective localised coverage, something we are not adverse to.

I feel most for kids waking up in the morning when there is the slightest hint of snow on the ground, however. You see 210 FM was changed to Heart Berkshire and this station has subsequently merged with what was Fox FM (now Heart Oxfordshire) to make Heart Thames Valley and now has to cover an area twice the size of what it used to. I know from experience how agonising the wait was before the breakfast show presenters told me if my school was cancelled. Now there will be at least twice as many schools to go through.

Third of radio listening now via web

nospam@example.com (Russell Goldsmith) — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:45:50 +0100

NMA tweeted this story this morning http://www.nma.co.uk/third-of-radio-listening-now-via-web/3015851.article

Nearly a third (31%) of radio listeners tune in via the internet, according to the latest Rajar figures.
Of that percentage, 29% of people claim they listen live, up 2% from November last year, and 25% use listen again services, also a 2% rise.

The results, which covered listening via mobile for the first time, showed 1.4m people have downloaded a radio app; 20% of smartphone users, with 53% of them claiming they use the app at least once a week.

The results also showed 16% of the 1,083 people surveyed downloaded podcasts.

The Rajar Measurement of Internet Delivered Audio Services (MIDAS 6) was carried out last month by Ipsos MORI.

For more, follow the link to NMA's website

Radio still the most trusted source of news

nospam@example.com (Howard Kosky) — Wed, 19 May 2010 08:06:18 +0100

So, 16 years after we first opened our studio doors, whilst we've embraced TV, online and social media in our full broadcast offering, it's always encouraging to see research that confirms what we said all those years ago when we started banging the drum for radio PR.

Since those early days of our business, despite the launch of 24 hour news channels, and the growth of the online news distribution, more people still trust radio news (66% or radio listeners) compared to news websites (58 per cent of internet users) and TV news output (54 per cent of TV viewers). These latest findings are from Ofcom’s latest Media Literacy reports, which reveal the UK’s media consumption habits and attitudes.

More details can be found at http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consumer/2010/05/uk-internet-users-becoming-more-security-conscious/