Oh good lord. Some DJ-producer guy formulated a ‘track’ called ‘The loyal Song’. It’s been around since Georgia hit our screens on Love Island this Summer but my ears started to burn when it popped up on YouTube during the week.
It got us thinking… Bucketloads of Irish people tune in to radio every day; and stay engaged for much longer than our EU pals; But are we a nation of Loyal Larrys or Gobby Georgias? We’re all good at talking about our favourite stations/ shows/ presenters… but are we as loyal as we think we are? We went digging for a closer look…
NATIONAL OR LOCAL RADIO: WHERE DO OUR LOYALTIES LIE?
National stations get a slightly bigger slice of the share of listening pie in the main. Time spent listening to National Radio (7am to 7pm) is 45%. Local radio is just slightly behind with 40%.
WHAT TIME OF THE DAY DO LISTENERS STAY TUNED FOR LONGEST?
National Radio: Breakfast! (44.5% of available minutes)
Local Radio: 9am to midday! (45.9% of available minutes)
DOES GEOGRAPHY COME INTO IT?
It kind of does! Radio listeners in the North West of Ireland are definitely a super-loyal bunch when it comes to their radio listening. Highland Radio has the highest market share in that franchise area with a massive 59% Prime Time market share (59% of all minutes listened are owned by Highland Radio)
But this is not the full story. We took a slightly different look at the average minutes listened in any week and…… (drumroll please) stand up EAST COAST, RADIO KERRY AND MIDWEST RADIO! These stations’ audiences listen for longest – That’s commercial gold because we know they rarely flick when the ad break comes on!
The time-spent-listening measurement is key to understanding listener loyalty, success of advertising and how to minimise missed opportunities.
YOUNG PEOPLE DO PAY ATTENTION!
Funnily enough, we talk all the time about Millennials and Generation Z having shorter attention spans and guilty of consuming so many platforms at once that they couldn’t possibly be paying attention – but when we looked at ‘Solus’ listeners; listeners who only listen to one radio station… the stations drawing younger audiences came out on top. Good work young people of Ireland!
SO WHO’S NOT JUST WINNING LISTENERS BUT KEEPING THEM LISTENING FOR LONGER?
iRadio NE (at 57%) and Beat (at 58%) have the highest proportion of Solus Listeners – more than half of their listeners not tuning in to any other station! (From an advertiser’s point of view, this means that if they don’t put these stations in their mix, then that is a large proportion of listeners they will never speak to)
MOTHER FLICKERS, THE LOT OF YOU!
So there you have it. Over 80% of us tune in to more than 1 station every day. It appears we continue to tune into our favourite Breakfast Presenter on National radio; then a flick to the local station mid-morning; back to national for the lunchtime news and so on. I guess that’s why there’s still plenty of room for all radio stations in Ireland; and no need for anyone to shove over in the bed. Nice one!
Until next time,
Siobhan
