The Radio 4 Blog Feed

Rajar figures (April - June 2013) and Radio 4 and Radio 4 Extra

2013-08-01T16:35:48+00:00

Chris Hutchings (Research Manager for Radio 4, 4 Extra and Audio & Music Interactive) discusses the latest Rajar results, which cover April - June 2013.

Rajar figures

The latest RAJARs are in, this time for April-June 2013. The overall headline number is really good for Radio 4 – we saw a record 11m tuning in to the station each week, that's over 120,000 more than our previous highest audience this time two years ago. However, there is a watch out on how long people listen for, with the average figure down slightly to 11 hours and 22 minutes. That said, across a typical week a staggering total of 125m hours of Radio 4 are listened to.

Geographically we've seen some interesting patterns, with growing audience numbers in the Midlands, the North of England, Wales and Northern Ireland. And in terms of how many of us tune in to the different types of programmes, we see 9m listen to news on Radio 4 each week, 7m to drama and 6m to comedy.

Looking at sister station Radio 4 Extra, we continue to see healthy numbers tuning in each week. The latest figure of 1.6m is down slightly on January – March, but this is the 9th successive set of figures that have been at or above 1.5m. And in terms of how long we're listening to Radio 4 Extra for, the average figure crept up above 6 hours (6 hours 2 minutes) for the first time in almost two years.

Chris Hutchings is Research Manager for Radio 4, Radio 4 Extra and Radio & Music Interactive at the BBC.

From the BBC Media Centre: RAJAR Q2 2013: Record figures for Radio 4, Radio 2 and Asian Network
RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research) is jointly owned by the BBC and commercial radio trade body the Radio Centre. Participating listeners are asked to record their radio listening in quarter-hour time blocks for one week.

Latest RAJARs for Radio 4 & 4 Extra

2013-05-16T12:15:40+00:00

Another Rajar day – and another good quarter for Radio 4 in the latest set of figures, which cover January - March 2013. I’m delighted that Radio 4’s unique flagship programmes such as Desert Island Discs, In Our Time and Woman’s Hour are getting record audiences and enticing more and more listeners each week to such brilliant broadcasters as Kirsty Young, Melvyn Bragg, Jenni Murray and Jane Garvey.

Sian Williams and Richard Coles have seen the extended Saturday Live attract increasing audiences. It’s also clear that the twists and turns of The Archers are keeping our listeners hooked on life in Ambridge!

Congratulations to all our talented teams and keep listening...

Here’s what the Radio 4 Audiences team told me:

Overall it’s another strong set of results for Radio 4 with 10.76m adults tuning in each week – this is the station's 5th highest reach figure since the current RAJAR methodology. We also had a record share of 12.8% this quarter, and with 21% of the population of this country tuning in each week, we’ve started the year pretty much where we left 2012. Radio 4 Extra also had another solid quarter, with 1.642m adults tuning in each week (down only slightly by -43k on last quarter), and record share at 0.95%. Our listeners this quarter were tuning in for longer, with an average 5.58 hours per listener per week – a new record for the station.

Once again, Radio 4 has the most loyal listeners of any network station with the average Radio 4 listener tuned in for 12 hours and 17 minutes a week in Q1 2013 – up by 13 minutes from last quarter and stable on last year.

News continues to be hugely popular amongst our audiences with 9.2m listening each week (slightly down on last quarter but up on last year) and our drama audiences were up both last quarter and last year at 7m. The Archers saw its strongest weekly reach since the record breaking Q2 2011 with 5.08m listeners each week and Radio 4’s comedy listening remained relatively stable, with 5.7m tuning in.

A number of Radio 4's flagship programmes have seen their numbers grow this quarter with Desert Island Discs getting record reach and share (3.08m and 13.0%), Woman’s Hour and In Our Time both saw record reach (3.66m and 2.26m respectively), and Saturday Live’s 9am-10.30am slot also saw its highest reach since at least Q3 2005 (2.44m).

Gwyneth Williams is Controller of BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 4 Extra

From the BBC Media Centre: RAJAR Q1 2013: Radio 2 scales new heights as BBC digital stations show long-term growth
RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research) is jointly owned by the BBC and commercial radio trade body the Radio Centre. Participating listeners are asked to record their radio listening in quarter-hour time blocks for one week.

Rajar figures (Oct-Dec 2012) and Radio 4 / Radio 4 Extra

2013-02-01T10:50:36+00:00

Chris Hutchings (Research Manager for Radio 4, 4 Extra and Audio & Music Interactive) discusses the latest Rajar results, which cover October - December 2012.

Radio 4 on DAB Digital Radio

The latest set of radio listening figures are in (for October-December 2012), and once again it's good news for Radio 4 and Radio 4 Extra. In a typical week 10.8m adults tune in to Radio 4 (equivalent to 1 in 5 of the UK population) and 1.7m to Radio 4 Extra!

Whilst listener numbers are down slightly on the previous quarter (-91k and -9k respectively), it's worth bearing in mind that July-September saw near record numbers for Radio 4 and record numbers for Radio 4 Extra. Indeed the current Radio 4 numbers are the 5th highest we've seen since the current RAJAR survey began back in 1999, and the 2nd highest that Radio 4 Extra has seen.

Looking at how long we're all listening for, the numbers are up. Across a typical week we listen to a staggering 130m hours of Radio 4, that's the highest number since the record breaking April - June 2011. And whilst different listeners will tune in for different amounts of time, it's good to see the average time spent listening to Radio 4 also increasing, from 11 hours and 48 minutes last quarter to 12 hours and 4 minutes.

Large numbers of us continue to tune in each week to listen to news programmes (9.4m), with The World At One posting particularly good numbers (up +160k on July-September to 3.5m). Whilst the total number of people tuning in for drama on Radio 4 also held steady (at 6.8m), the numbers tuning in for comedy were up, +200k to 5.7m. A shout out should also go to Woman's Hour, where we've seen record listener numbers - 3.25m of us tune in each week between 10am and 10.45am Monday-Friday.

RAJAR listening figures for Q3 2011: "In an average week 10.83m adults listen to Radio 4..."

2012-02-02T10:00:00+00:00

I have been waiting for my usual Rajar Day telephone call - this time it is long distance as I am on holiday.

It is rather good news so congratulations to everyone who has contributed to our programmes. Chris Hutchings is our new audience guru here on Radio 4 so I thought I would pass you onto him for a more detailed analysis of who has been listening to what and for how long.

Chris Hutchings writes:

The latest RAJAR figures are in for Radio 4 and overall it's good news. In an average week 10.83m adults listen to Radio 4, that's 280,000 more than last quarter, 515,000 more than this time last year and tantalisingly close to the best ever figure of 10.85m. We've also seen a strong performance in terms of share of listening, with the current figure of 12.5% the equal highest that Radio 4 has seen.

News, drama and comedy all continue to attract large audience numbers. Each week 7.15m of us tune in to the Today programme, whilst just under 5m tune in to The Archers.

4 Extra also continues to perform well, attracting 1.55m listeners each week and retaining its position as the UK's No.1 Digital-only station (despite some impressive audience numbers for 6 Music and I Xtra).

Gwyneth Williams is Controller of BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 4 Extra

The Sun: Chris Moyles' war with John Humphrys of Radio 4
From the BBC Press Office: RAJAR: Radio 6 Music and Radio 1Xtra break records in anniversary year
More about the RAJARs on the BBC Radio 4 blog
RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research) is jointly owned by the BBC and commercial radio trade body the Radio Centre. Participating listeners are asked to record their radio listening in quarter-hour time blocks for one week.
Picture, 28 January 2009, by Adam Bowie, used under licence.

RAJAR listening figures for Q3 2011

2011-10-27T12:20:00+00:00

http://www.rajar.co.uk/listening/quarterly_listening.php

Yesterday on my way out of Broadcasting House to have lunch with Libby Purves, I met George Soros in the lift - he had just been a guest on Stephanie Flanders' new series Stephanomics. Before I left the office I listened back to Umberto Eco (what a voice; what books) interviewed for Front Row with Kirsty Lang.

Midweek included Terry Wogan (and he sang); last week Michael Morpurgo told Libby that he first got to see his real father on TV playing Magwitch in Great Expectations; and the week before featured a hero of mine (and Libby's it turns out), Albie Sachs, the former high-court judge and an architect of the South African constitution.

Oh, and if you haven't heard them already, don't miss Stephen Fry and Daniel Digby as Marengo and Copenhagen - the war horses of Napoleon and Wellington - in Warhorses of Letters which started this week.

Our Rajar figures are 10.55m - up by some 187k when compared with last year, although down on last quarter's record of 10.85m. It's worth noting that this quarter includes the summer hols in which listening often dips. Share is 12 per cent - up slightly compared with this time last year when it was 11.8 per cent, but again down on last quarter which was 12.4 per cent (share is about the share of listening to all radio that Radio 4 enjoys).

The average hours that listeners spend tuned to Radio 4 each week is up a tad this quarter and up some 19 minutes on the year at 12 hours and 17 minutes.

So on average ten and a half million people listen to Radio 4 for over twelve hours a week.

Oh and a small record or two - for Woman's Hour Drama, the Afternoon Play, as well as You and Yours - and FOOC on Saturday has done particularly well.

Radio 4 Extra's reach is much the same as last quarter at 1.52m (it was 1.53m). It is significantly higher than last year - up 46 per cent. Share is a record 0.9 per cent and total hours spent with the station each week hit a record of 9 million+, thanks to average time spent per listener of just over 6 hours. We hope this means that listeners have now found some programmes they enjoy on Radio 4 Extra and are staying with us to listen to them.

Congratulations to everyone who has contributed to the last three months of programmes.

Our audience guru, Alison Winter, tells me that on Radio 4 and 4 Extra we are seeing a pattern of long term growth. She said she would add a few lines to this note from me for those who might prefer to go to the tutored source as it were.

Alison Winter writes:

"You may recall seeing the headlines 3 months ago when Radio 4 enjoyed a record audience of 10.85m, riding on the tide of good news for radio that saw more people (47.6m, 15+) listening to more radio (just over 1 billion hours every week) than ever before.

So, as we pondered what the results for Q3 might have in store we expected to see a decline, given that Q3 includes the summer months of July and August, when normal routines can be disrupted and people are apt to spend more time out of the home and workplace. And indeed most radio stations have seen declines on the quarter, Radio 4 being no exception. But there is also a pattern of longterm growth as audiences are, by and large, higher than they were a year ago. In the case of Radio 4, the weekly audience has remained above 10 million (with only one exception) since mid-way through 2009, routinely attracting 1 in 5 of the UK population every week.

Gwyn has already highlighted some of the particularly good performances across the network this time round but another one I've found is the relative strength of DAB as a listening platform among Radio 4 listeners: as much as 26% of all Radio 4 listening is through DAB, versus the industry average of 18%. Maybe this explains the good news for 4 Extra, maintaining almost all of those who tuned in last quarter as it launched, and reaching record hours of listening each week."

Gwyneth Williams is Controller of BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 4 Extra

You can read the press release (PDF) and view the Q3 2011 quarterly summary on the RAJAR website.
From BBC Press Office: RAJAR - BBC Radio listening highest for three years
BBC News: BBC Radio 4 audience falls from record listenership
The Drum: Rajars reveal that digital radio accounts for nearly a third of all listening figures
RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research) is jointly owned by the BBC and commercial radio trade body the Radio Centre. Participating listeners are asked to record their radio listening in quarter-hour time blocks for one week.
Picture, 28 January 2009, by Adam Bowie, used under licence.

Record listening figures for Radio 4: RAJARs Q2 2011

2011-08-04T07:13:18+00:00

I am on holiday in Wales (glorious river noise, mountains and sun) and keep having to go up the drive to use the Blackberry so I had given our audience guru, Alison Winter, the land line to find me instantly with her quarterly much-awaited phone call bearing RAJAR data - RAJAR is the body that calculates and releases the official radio listening figures every quarter.

Sure enough - and right on the expected time - her expert tones delivered rather good news: new records all round for Radio 4 and 4 Extra. A record across all genres: news, drama and comedy.

Congratulations to brilliant programme-makers everywhere for this audience appreciation of your work. News records include Today, the World at One (which I am about to extend in length), PM and the Six O'clock bulletin. Eighty-seven per cent of Radio 4 listeners listen to some of our news output on a weekly basis. This is heartening.

I am most pleased, however, this time, with the Radio 4 Extra record of 1.6 million. This demonstrates that listeners are responding to the rich archive and additional programmes seductively put together by my colleague, Mary Kalemkerian, Radio 4 Extra's Head of Programmes, and her team.

And now, pay particular attention to the words of the audience research guru Alison Winter. Here she is to explain all:

Always good to be the bearer of good news and this quarter gave me that very opportunity. It was with some trepidation, though, that I opened the file detailing the latest radio listening figures, mindful of the "best ever" figures we reported last time round.

But these figures have surpassed them. 10.85m UK adults now listen to Radio 4 each week, nudging up from 10.83 last quarter and a good deal up from the figure we reported at this time last year, 10.4m. And Radio 4 listeners are incredibly loyal to the station too, tuning in for, on average, 12h 15m every week - an exceptional figure among those stations that broadcast to the whole of the UK.

As Gwyn points out above, this isn't the work of one or two programmes or even one particular genre. It's thanks to strong content across the board. In addition to the programmes already mentioned, Front Row, The Archers, Woman's Hour and You and Yours are examples of programmes that will be celebrating record figures today. Breakfast is a key time for radio listening and our own Today goes from strength to strength too, this time attracting 7.18m weekly listeners.

Speaking of audience, again we find increases across the board this time round: Radio 4 continues to do an admirable job of attracting both men and women in almost equal measure, and there are increases in the number of listeners across different ages.

And of course this was the first quarter that we saw figures for the newly-relaunched Radio 4 Extra, which is now the most listened to digital-only network.

The 1.6m figure mentioned above is up from 1.16m last quarter and, together with the record Radio 4 figure, points to a healthy appetite for speech radio of this kind.

Finally, to put all of this in context, we know, today, that more people than ever before are listening to the radio in the UK - 47.62 million of us to be exact. And we're listening for longer than ever, consuming over 1 billion hours of live radio every week.

So while there's good news for Radio 4, Radio 4 Extra and their listeners, the wider story is also of a radio sector that's still relevant and actually going from strength to strength.

Gwyneth Williams is Controller of BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 4 Extra

You can read the press release (PDF) and view the Q2 2011 quarterly summary on the RAJAR website.
RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research) is jointly owned by the BBC and commercial radio trade body the Radio Centre. Participating listeners are asked to record their radio listening in quarter-hour time blocks for one week.
Picture, 28 January 2009, by Adam Bowie, used under licence.

Explaining 'the Rajars'

2011-07-08T12:55:00+00:00

I always thought that the average Feedback listener was younger than I am, better dressed and more intelligent, and now I know it's true. I also now know that 1.4 million of you tune in to the programme every week.

Well I'm guessing about the intelligence and the quality of clothes, but the audience figures are certainly kosher. How do I know? Because RAJAR told me so. RAJAR stands for the Radio Joint Audience Research, and is jointly owned by the BBC and its commercial rivals.

Every year 100,000 RAJAR surveys are completed, detailing what people listen to and when. Up to now they have used paper diaries, but this month listeners are able to switch to filling in their listening diaries online if they want to do so.

It was the evidence from RAJAR that helped the BBC decide to move many of its children's programmes off radio and on to online, because they found that not enough young people were listening and that the real audience for such programmes had an average age of 48.

Some Feedback listeners wonder how reliable RAJAR's research is so this week I went to see its Chief Executive, Jerry Hill:

So how useful is this research to the BBC? Alison Winter leads a team of eight audience researchers in the BBC's audio and music department. I asked her what role the Rajar data plays in her work?

By the way, I'm sorry that we couldn't run our much trailed Today feature on Feedback this week. They won't allow me into the programme's offices without a minder, and she was sick this week. We'll keep trying.

Roger Bolton is presenter of Feedback

Listen again to this week's Feedback, produced by Karen Pirie, get in touch with the programme, find out how to join the listener panel or subscribe to the podcast on the Feedback web page.
Read all of Roger's Feedback blog posts.
Feedback is on Twitter. Follow @BBCR4Feedback.
RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research) is jointly owned by the BBC and commercial radio trade body the Radio Centre. Under the existing, paper system, participating listeners are asked to record their radio listening in quarter-hour time blocks for one week.
The most recent RAJAR figures for 'linear listening', not including on-demand listening or podcasts, for the first quarter of 2011 are on the RAJAR web site. The next Rajars, for the second quarter, are due on 4 August.
There's a press release describing the new online diary on the RAJAR web site (PDF).
Picture by Roadsidepictures. Some rights reserved.

Feedback - Radio 4 Extra: A rose by any other name would smell as sweet

2011-05-20T12:48:00+00:00

The BBC digital station Radio 7 has changed its name to Radio 4 Extra, but some Feedback listeners don't like the smell.

Amaechi Ihetu told us that she was 'disappointed that listeners have lost a true gem'. Tina Taylor wrote 'I don't want to hear repeats of Desert Island Discs'.

Fred Whalley was among a number of listeners who were sad to lose the children's programming that they had enjoyed on 7, and even some Archers addicts claim to be indifferent to Ambridge Extra. Others, like Galen White, question the wisdom of putting the Ambridge Extra omnibus straight after the Archers Omnibus, an obvious ploy to get addicts to cross from 4 to 4 Extra.

Well these are early days and the retitled network has only been broadcasting for a few weeks, but the BBC Trust was clear that something had to be done to improve the size of audience. The last figures suggest Radio 7 had a 0.6% share of listening, making it a vulnerable target at a time of belt tightening.

On the other hand the Trust's David Liddiment made it clear, in a Feedback interview earlier in the year, that he didn't want the network to change that much and that 'most of the programming (on 4 Extra) would be recognisable to a Radio 7 audience.'

There are benefits to the change of name. The Controller of 4 Extra is Gwyneth Williams, Controller of Radio 4, and this means that there can be more complementary programmes between the two networks and more trails for 4 Extra on its Big Sister network.

The Head of Programming of 4 Extra is Mary Kalemkerian who did the same job for Radio 7. On Wednesday she came into the Feedback studio to talk down the line to two listeners. Rae Streets was in Cambridge and John Shellard in Sheffield. They did not pull their punches.

Feedback is now on the air until the end of July.

It's likely to be a long hot summer for BBC management as it spells out the detailed consequences of the cut in the licence fee, and tries to get approval from the BBC Trust, and ultimately you, for the changes that they think unavoidable.

More salami slicing or cuts in actual services?

We'll soon find out. Make sure you let us know what you think. Leave a comment on the blog or get in touch via the Feedback web site.

Roger Bolton is presenter of Feedback

Listen again to this week's Feedback, produced by Karen Pirie, get in touch with Feedback, find out how to join the listener panel or subscribe to the podcast on the Feedback web page.
Feedback is on Twitter. Follow @BBCR4Feedback.
Picture info: "Steptoe and Son: S5 29/01/1970 © BBC Picture shows - Harry H. Corbett as Harold Steptoe and Wilfrid Brambell as Albert Steptoe pictured here in the junkyard in series five of 'Steptoe and Son'." You can hear Steptoe and Son on Radio 4 Extra.
RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research) and is the official body in charge of measuring radio audiences in the UK. It is jointly owned by the BBC and the RadioCentre on behalf of the commercial sector. Details of the Radio 7 .6% share of listening quoted above can be found here. By way of comparison Radio 4's figure for the same period is 12.30%.

Rather fabulous - the Q1 Rajars are in

2011-05-11T23:01:00+00:00

http://www.rajar.co.uk/listening/quarterly_listening.php

"Rather fabulous" - she really did say that a moment ago on the phone. I am referring to our Radio 4 audience guru, Alison Winter. It was a momentary lapse as she is, as you might expect when it comes to figures, well... measured... Thus you will gather that the first quarter RAJAR listening figures for Radio 4 are cheering: a record reach in fact of 10.8 million. This means that 10.8 million people have listened to Radio 4 for at least five minutes a week in the last three months. This time last year the figure was 10 million. So congratulations to all programme-makers.

The previous all-time highest reach of 10.4 million was in the second quarter last year. Our best guess then was that this was because of the general election and the interest that generated. There has been no general election this time so it could be that once those listeners found us we managed somehow to hang onto them. Perhaps instead they have become entranced with the Arab Spring and our coverage of the Middle East... Or perhaps they just love John Humphrys - reach to the Today programme was a record 7.03million.

Share for Radio 4 too is slightly up at 12.3 per cent which makes it broadly consistent with last year when it was 12.2 per cent. (Share is the proportion of all listening to all radio in the UK) I find this heartening as it means that people are continuing to listen to Radio 4 for rather a considerable length of time- in fact they listen for around twelve hours a week. Given the explosion of choice in the media and the seemingly relentless demands on our time this commitment from our audience feels significant and privileged.

Among specific audience groups, we now have more women listening to Radio 4 than ever before - 5.49 million every week (vs. just under 5.34 million men). There are high figures among our core, very loyal, older audiences but at the same time we have more under-35s listening to Radio 4 than at any point since 2003.

And then there is Radio 7, now transformed into Radio 4 Extra. Weekly reach there too is a record 1.159 million. These record figures are in tune with the trend for radio which is something to celebrate but my personal view is that the greatest value they bring is to give all of us at Radio 4 the confidence to set them aside and concentrate on making the best programmes we can for our cherished and discerning audience.

UPDATE 2pm, May 12th: I have more news on this record quarter - and all credit to Radio 4's production teams. We have record listening figures for the following: comedy programmes across the week (5.22 million), our drama throughout the week (7.1 million), The Archers (2.49 million for lunchtime listening and 5.01million across the week); You and Yours with 3.33 million - and along with her Sony Gold Special Award, Jenni Murray and the Womans Hour team can celebrate a record listening figure of 3.56million across the week.

Gwyneth Williams is Controller of BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 4 Extra

RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research) is jointly owned by the BBC and commercial radio trade body the Radio Centre. Participating listeners are asked to record their radio listening in quarter-hour time blocks for one week.
The RAJAR figures for 'linear listening', not including on-demand listening or podcasts, in a table.
Read 5 Live Controller; Adrian Van Klaveren's analysis of his network's figures..
Read the BBC's press release and download the official RAJAR quarterly press release (PDF).
Picture, 28 January 2009, by Adam Bowie, used under licence.

A RAJAR primer

2011-02-02T11:38:09+00:00

Editor's note: Radio 4's listening figures for the final quarter of 2010 are published tomorrow. Paul Kennedy, Research Director at RAJAR, explains how they're gathered - SB.

RAJAR, or 'Radio Joint Audience Research', is the official body in charge of radio audience measurement for the UK. RAJAR was established in 1992 to replace two other measurement systems operated separately by the BBC and Commercial Radio. Today RAJAR collects information on behalf of over 300 stations, ranging from very small local services to the national networks...

Read the rest of Paul's primer and leave a comment, on the BBC Radio blog.

RAJAR listening figures for Q3 2010

2010-10-28T07:00:00+00:00

http://www.rajar.co.uk/listening/quarterly_listening.php

I missed the much-discussed phonecall yesterday about the three-monthly Rajar figures so I went looking for Alison Winter, the Radio 4 audiences guru. We found a quiet corner and whispered the headlines to and fro. It's all rather good - actually I think very good. So congratulations to the programme-makers and to Mark Damazer. Radio 4 reach this quarter is 10.37 million. That means that 10.37 million people have listened to Radio 4 for at least 15 minutes a week in the last three months.

Last quarter Radio 4 got its highest figures ever - and our best guess is that that is because of the general election and the interest it generated. Those figures for our all-time highest reach were 10.40 million - so this quarter compares rather well. Now it could be that people are still fascinated by politics, but we might reach towards the more appealing notion that perhaps we have managed to retain some of the new listeners we drew in; let's hope we continue to hang onto them. The rather lower share figure might bear this out. Share is the proportion of all listening to all radio in the UK.

And that measure for Radio 4 this quarter is 11.9 per cent. This time last year it was 12.4 per cent. Down, slightly, in this case because, overall, people are listening for a marginally shorter length of time to Radio 4. It could be then, taking the positive view, that we have retained new listeners and that these new listeners still need to be persuaded to listen longer... Today continues to attract a very large audience to Radio 4 - just over 6.5million every week (Mon-Fri) - and drama too is up this quarter on last.

Among specific audience groups, we now have more men listening to Radio 4 than ever before - 5.4 million every week (vs. just under 5 million women). There are also record figures among our core, very loyal, older audiences but at the same time we have more under 35s listening to Radio 4 than at any point since 1999.

And then there is Radio 7. Weekly reach is the second largest ever at 1.045 million.

So a cheery first Rajar experience for me. Please will Tim Harford, from More or Less- a Radio 4 programme launched (I am proud to say) while I was Head of Radio Current Affairs, now tell me what I have got wrong. And what it all really means. Watch this space...

Gwyneth Williams is Controller of BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 7.

RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research) is jointly owned by the BBC and commercial radio trade body the Radio Centre. Participating listeners are asked to record their radio listening in quarter-hour time blocks for one week.
The RAJAR figures for 'linear listening', not including on-demand listening or podcasts, in a table and the official quarterly press release (PDF).
The Controller of BBC Radio 5 Live; Adrian Van Klaveren has also blogged about his station's figures.
"RAJAR 2010 Quarter 3: BBC Proms boosts Radio 3 by 300,000: BBC Press Release
Picture, 28 January 2009, by Adam Bowie, used under licence.

Latest RAJAR listening figures

2010-02-04T11:51:55+00:00

http://www.rajar.co.uk/listening/quarterly_listening.php

It's RAJAR day. It happens four times a year. We get figures for the previous quarter's listening - in this case Oct- Dec 2009. And although not quite as vertiginous as the previous quarter - the figures are pretty decent. The headlines are that 9.84 million of you listen to at least 15 minutes a week - and you listen on average to 12 hours 34 minutes - which is up from the previous lot of RAJARs - and more than any other station. Radio 4's share of the total radio market is 12.5% - which is also up. And we have slightly more listeners than at this stage last year. So all in all we're happy enough.

What causes change in listening figures ? In television it's easy to track. There are overnight figures for every programme and you can predict what sort of programme will get a huge audience (Strictly, X Factor) and what will harvest fewer viewers. There are no overnight figures for radio, and in the case of Radio 4, there is quite a lot of stability in listening patterns. We know that almost all that we do at 0900, say, will get an audience hovering around the 2 million mark - or that the Afternoon Play will get about 800,000. We would have to do something violent to change that hugely.

But over a period of time I hope that the quality of the programmes and some changes here and there persuade more people to try Radio 4 - or to stay with Radio 4 longer. Our success is for you to judge.

Sometimes - but rarely - a big event influences listening. Thus 9/11 and the Iraq war in 2003 both boosted the RAJARs - with programmes like Today, The World at One, PM and The World Tonight attracting a larger audience wanting the depth and analysis we hope we provide.

It is possible that the recession has had an impact on our figures. It's not easy, though, to isolate the effect.

And as I always say - RAJARs are relevant. Quality and range matter more.

Mark Damazer is Controller of BBC Radio 4

RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research) is jointly owned by the BBC and commercial radio trade body the Radio Centre. Participating listeners are asked to record their radio listening in quarter-hour time blocks for one week.
The RAJAR figures for 'linear listening', not including on-demand listening or podcasts, in a table and the official quarterly press release (PDF).
In the media pages, The Times focuses on Terry Wogan's 'valedictory' final quarter and The Guardian on the performance of the national commercial networks. The Guardian also has a page tracking TV overnights.
Picture, 28 January 2009, by Adam Bowie, used under licence.

More good RAJAR news

2009-10-29T09:29:07+00:00

Well - the latest figures for Radio 4 are very, very gratifying. Indeed they are the best since a new measuring methodology was introduced a decade or so ago - and it's not possible to compare them with what happened before.

Briefly, 10.22 million people listen to at least 15 minutes a week - but lest you think they only listen for 15 minutes a week before rumbling around for Planet Rock or daytime television - they listen on average for 12 and a quarter hours.

Radio 4 listening accounts for 12.4 % of the radio market. That's close to a record too. The figures neither include podcasting nor do they capture the listening to programmes after they've been broadcast on the iPlayer. So overall consumption of Radio 4 is a bit higher than the RAJAR figures.

I need to say (not, I know, for the first time) that RAJAR figures alone go nowhere near determining how we are doing. Radio 4 is about quality and range. Excellence (subjective as it is) matters more than anything. But it is obviously good that more people are tuning in.

I don't think there is a single reason for the growth in the numbers... but I do think that it is the particular demands and nature of the audience that drives us all on. We know that the listeners want intelligent conversation, argument, debate, drama and wit. The many producers who successfully make programmes for Radio 4 - both in-house and from independent companies - know that the audience expects quality with no short-cuts. In other words - the audience raises our game.

The individual programme figures take a bit of time to digest - but we do know that our biggest programme, Today, with 6.6 million listeners across the week is steaming along and there are terrific figures too for Woman's Hour and You and Yours.

Mark Damazer is Controller of BBC Radio 4

RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research) is jointly owned by the BBC and commercial radio trade body the Radio Centre. Participating listeners are asked to record their radio listening in quarter-hour time blocks for one week.
The RAJAR figures for 'linear listening', not including on-demand listening or podcasts, in a table and the official quarterly press release (PDF).
The Guardian's RAJAR story leads on Radio 4's performance
The picture (by Stan Was) shows Jenni Murray presenting Woman's Hour in front of an audience at Derby University. The RAJAR figures show that Woman's Hour is doing particularly well.

It's RAJAR day at Radio 4

2009-08-06T10:22:22+00:00

http://www.rajar.co.uk/listening/quarterly_listening.php

It's a RAJAR day - when the radio industry gets its audience figures.

I must stress that RAJARs are not the be all and end all of matters. Quality, range, impact - all count a great deal. But still - I'd rather they were good than not. And they are.

We appear to be increasing quarter-on-quarter in microscopic increments - from 9.98 million reach to 9.999. (Reach is defined as the number of people who listen to at least 15 minutes a week). I left here last night uncertain about the theological decency of rounding this up to 10 million. I am told that this is indeed considered to be 10 million. Hooray.

Share - is a little down quarter-on-quarter - from 12.5% to 12.1% but is still very satisfactory. The average amount of listening per listener is over 12 hours, the most for any BBC network.

I am not quite sure why we are having such a good RAJAR year. The likeliest answer is the strength of the economic story. R4 did very well early in 2003 when the war with Iraq was happening and also in the quarter of 9/11 so maybe it's that.

What is clear (to me at any rate) is the strength and depth of R4's coverage of this sort of serious story - and of MPs expenses where we put together some very strong programmes - peppered with exclusive interviews. It was The World at One that had Anthony Steen's extraordinary outburst - and The Report had the first interview from within the House of Commons fees office. Nick Robinson's programme - featuring the first broadcast interview with The Telegraph's editor Will Lewis - gave a terrific insight into the dilemmas of reporting the story.

And meanwhile - there' s been Smiley (the brainchild of Patrick Rayner in BBC Scotland Drama), Inside the Ethics Committee - one of my favourite factual treats - drama meets ethics - which is on at the moment. And The Odd Half Hour last night at 1830 - and so on.

The best bit of this job is listening to the programmes.

RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research) is jointly owned by the BBC and commercial radio trade body the Radio Centre. Participating listeners are asked to record their radio listening in quarter-hour time blocks for one week.
The RAJAR figures for 'linear listening', not including on-demand listening or podcasts, in a table and the official quarterly press release (PDF).
The BBC's RAJAR press release.
Trade paper Radio Today leads on the RAJARs.
Media Guardian has a 'who said what' feature on industry reaction to the latest figures.
Wikipedia's entries on RAJAR and on audience share.
Picture, Any Questions, Friday Evening, by Tristan Ferne. Used under licence.

The RAJARs are in

2009-05-07T07:26:09+00:00

http://www.rajar.co.uk/listening/quarterly_listening.php

The RAJAR figures are a ritual.

Once every three months R4's Head of Audience Research (he does many other things too) phones up on a Wednesday evening and reels off a few key numbers for Radio 4 and Radio 7. The conversation lasts about 30 seconds - and we are both exaggeratedly laconic. Yesterday he began with "Quite good really" or words to that effect and then went on to say... "9.98million/12.5%/6.69 million/PM all-time high/everything up/Radio 7 984,000."

I said "That's OK then. And if we indulge ourselves by musing about rounding up to the next significant figure we get to 10 million for Radio 4... but we must not cheat." End of conversation.

I will decode - and all of what follows applies to the first three months of 2009.

9.98 million people per week listened to Radio 4 for at least 15 minutes per week. (This figure is called 'Weekly Reach'). This figure has been exceeded only once in the last ten years or so - during the Iraq war in 2003.

The average amount of listening per week of those 9.98 million is 12 hours and 50 minutes.(Radio 4 has the highest average weekly listening figure of the national stations). Radio 4 listening now accounts for 12.5% of all listening to all radio in the U.K - the highest figure since the current measuring system for radio listening was introduced over a decade ago.

Weekly Reach for Today is 6.69 million. That too is a very high figure and when Today's figures are strong it helps the overall R4 figure. PM's figures - 3.84 million and a 15.1% share - have never been better - or at least not since the new measurement system was introduced.

But it was not just News programmes that did well this quarter. Drama and Comedy for instance had a bumper quarter too. And Radio 7's weekly reach was its best yet at 984,000.

But - and it's a very big but indeed - RAJAR figures - whether up, down or sideways - do not tell the whole story about Radio 4 or Radio 7. Quality, range, distinctiveness, originality all matter and are not always reflected in the RAJAR figures. I remember one quarter a couple of years back where I thought we had transmitted some really outstanding programmes but the RAJAR figures were not particularly noteworthy. And - painful though it may be to admit - the reverse is also possible. But I hope not in this case.

The radio industry, unlike television (BARB) does not have overnight figures. Occasionally one yearns for evidence that a particular programme or piece of scheduling has reaped rewards - but on the whole the absence of the 'overnights' is a liberation. You can put in a greater number of 90 minute plays on Saturday afternoons - for instance - without instantly fretting about the impact on a particular Saturday afternoon's listening. One day the technology may allow for overnights in radio - and I can't deny that I would be reading them voraciously - but for the time being I enjoy not having them.

So it's been a good RAJAR quarter and I hope we have been delighting and stimulating you - but I am acutely aware that what goes up can come down - so we won't be spending the day awash with champagne.

RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research) is jointly owned by the BBC and commercial radio trade body the Radio Centre. Participating listeners are asked to record their radio listening in quarter-hour time blocks for one week.
The RAJAR figures for 'linear listening', not including on-demand listening or podcasts, in a table and the official quarterly press release (PDF).
The BBC's RAJAR press release leads on Radio 4's record quarter.
BBC News Online covered the RAJARs, leading on Chris Moyles.
Trade paper Radio Today's RAJAR page.
Media Guardian on the RAJARs.
Paid Content, a digital media trade paper, on Internet listening
Journalism trade paper Press Gazette emphasises Radio 4's performance.
Wikipedia's entry on RAJAR.