Radio 1, Newstalk flagships lose out in latest listenership figures
Morning Ireland suffered the biggest fall, losing 25,000 listeners year on year, but still remains the most listened to radio programme in the country with 423,000 listeners.
Today with Seán O’Rourke has also suffered, losing 20,000 listeners year-on-year and now has 312,000 people tuning in every day.
Joe Duffy’s Liveline also took a hit, losing 14,000 listeners year on year.
The show now has 373,000 daily listeners. Ryan Tubridy and Ray D’arcy also lost listeners year-on-year and now have 318,000 (-5,000) and 207,000 (-6,000) respectively.
The weekend shows had a stronger showing with Miriam O’Callaghan and Saturday Sport gaining significant increases.
While Marion Finucane lost 13,000 listeners to 359,000 on Saturday, her Sunday show saw a large jump of 38,000 to 346,000 listeners.
Overall, Radio 1 gained 39,000 listeners year-on-year. RTÉ radio as a whole also retains its position, holding the top 20 radio programmes in the country.
By contrast, 2FM has had another strong book gaining 59,000 listeners year on year and all its main shows adding listeners.
Breakfast Republic retains its spot as number 20 in the country with 186,000 listeners with an increase of 32,000 year-on-year.
It was also good news for the The Nicky Byrne Show with Jenny Greene, which added 19,000 listeners year-on-year to 150,000.
The head of radio strategy at RTÉ 2FM, Dan Healy, said the figures were “extremely satisfying”.
“There’s a significant jump in 15 to 34-year-olds from 10.9% to 13.3% year-on-year, which is a strategic objective we set in 2014. This is the fifth consecutive book in a row that 2FM has seen increases,” he said.
On Today FM, breakfast show stalwart Ian Dempsey lost 7,000 listeners year-on-year to 160,000
Muireann O’Connell, who was announced as the new lunchtime presenter on Today FM last month after Al Porter left the station, has a starting audience of almost 98,000.
However, this figure is a significant drop on the number of listeners who tuned into to Mr Porter’s show.
Louise Duffy’s Lost in Music show added 2,000 listeners year-on-year, while Alison Curtis added an impressive 10,000 new listeners to her Weekend Breakfast shows.
Today FM CEO Keith McCormack said that, “even with unplanned schedule changes”, the station still recruited almost 60,000 new listeners, adding that this was “a huge positive”.
“Outside of the publicly funded RTÉ Radio 1, Today FM remains the biggest radio station in Ireland; we plan on keeping it that way,” he said.
Newstalk welcomed the fact that it has grown its market share to 6.3% and increased its listenership by 63,000 over the past year to achieve what it said was a record weekly reach of 754,000 listeners.
However, some of its flagship morning shows have also suffered. Newstalk Breakfast has lost 3,000 listeners year-on-year to 119,000, while Pat Kenny has lost 4,000 listeners to 143,000.
Seán Moncrieff was the station’s big winner, adding 17,000 listeners year-on-year to 82,000. Lunchtime Live, Off the Ball, and the Hard Shoulder also all gained listeners.
In Cork, The Opinion Line on Cork’s 96FM with PJ Coogan continues to be the most listened to morning talkshow, with 76,000 people tuning in each day, which it claims is 10% more than its nearest local rival.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
