RTÉ Press Centre

RTÉ’S WEEKLY RADIO REACH IS ALMOST 2 MILLION

Massive gains in daytime RTÉ Radio 1 schedule

Strong book across all RTÉ  stations

RTÉ Radio 1 continues to hold 19 of the top 20 programmes in Ireland 

RTÉ 2FM sees strong growth across all daytime programmes 

RTÉ Radio 1, RTÉ 2FM and RTÉ lyric fm have a combined weekly reach of over half of all of Ireland’s Adult population. Collectively, the three stations have a weekly reach of almost 2 million (1,954,000), or 52% of the Adult 15+ population.

Commenting on the latest radio figures for RTÉ, Jim Jennings, Managing Director, RTÉ Radio says: 

 “This is a fantastic day in RTÉ as all of our radio stations demonstrate growth. RTÉ Radio 1 remains the market leader by a clear margin with more and more listeners choosing to tune in everyday. The huge growth in share, YoY, for 15-34 year olds on RTÉ 2FM is very encouraging and it further indicates that the re-positioning of the station is proving to be a massive success with the target audience. RTÉ lyric fm had a very impressive book today with large growth on its weekly reach figure and many of its programmes showing notable book on book growth.'”

RTÉ Radio 1

The latest JNLR figures, released Wednesday 26 April 2017*, show that RTÉ Radio 1 programmes account for the top 19 in the country (Adults 15+). RTÉ Radio 1 continues to be the only station with a weekly reach of over + 1million (at 1,385,000) (+33,000 BoB and + 21,000 YoY)

There have been huge gains across the majority on Radio 1 weekday programmes with increases (b-o-b) for The Ryan Tubridy Show, Today with Sean O’Rourke, Ronan Collins, News at One , The Ray D’Arcy Show and The John Creedon Show. 

On weekends (b-o-b) The Marian Finucane Show, Playback, Saturday with Claire Byrne, This Week, Saturday Sport and Sunday Sport , Sunday with Miriam, Bowman and The Weekend on One all experienced strong growth.  It is worth noting that The Marian Finucane Show (Sundays) posted the highest reach 000’s (+28,000) of any programme for this JNLR book.

Tom McGuire, Head of RTÉ Radio 1 says: 

“‘These audience figures are the signature tune to what I hope will be a great year for RTÉ Radio 1.  In sport, the new and loyal listeners on weekends will enjoy exclusive coverage of the GAA championships. An bigger audience are ‘getting more from the story’ every day on the station.  I look forward to a summer where the listener can enjoy the radio while being engaged and entertained.”

•         Morning Ireland remains the most listened to radio programme with 441,000
•         The Ryan Tubridy Show now has 336,000 listeners, up b-o-b (13,000) and up y-o-y (14,000)
•         Today with Sean O’Rourke increases with a substantial increase of 22,000 b-o-b to 354,000, up 28,000 y-o-y
•         Ronan Collins gains 12,000 listeners (b-o-b) to 229,000
•         News at One increases by 3,000 (b-o-b) to 335,000
•         Liveline grows its audience by 7,000 to 394,000 (b-o-b) and remains the second most most listened to radio programme in Ireland 
•         The Ray D’Arcy Show is up a notable 13,000 b-o-b and 9,000 y-o-y to 226,000
•         Drivetime with Mary Wilson gains 3,000 listeners b-o-b to 241,000
•         Arena holds steady with b-o-b with 31,000 listeners
•         The John Creedon Show gains 2,000 b-o-b to 43,000 and up 9,000 y-o-y
•         The Marian Finucane Show (Sat) grows 10,000 (b-o-b) to 382,000 and on Sundays to 336,000 up 28,000 (b-o-b)
•         Saturday with Claire Byrne increases 8,000 (b-o-b) to 230,000
•         Saturday Sport and Sunday Sport have made notable gains b-o-b – Saturday Sport gains 21,000 to 184,000 Sunday Sport is up 10,000 to 183,000
•         Sunday with Miriam is up 11,000 to 256,000 listeners (b-o-b)
•         Playback gains 5,000 listeners to 288,000 (b-o-b) and up 14,000 (y-o-y)
•         Late Date incl. The Book on One gains 2,000 listeners b-o-b to 21,000

 *Source: JNLR/ Ipsos MRBI 2017/1

RTÉ 2FM

Breakfast Republic remains the number one radio show in Ireland for 15-34s and 2FM has seen book-on-book increases across the weekday (7am-7pm) schedule. The RTÉ 2FM weekday share is up to 6.1% (+0.1 pt)

Commenting today, Head of RTÉ 2FM, Dan Healy says: 

“2FM was re-imagined so that it would appeal to a younger audience and it is very satisfying to see this age group interacting with the station in such large numbers. The station now has six of the top ten programmes for 15-34 year olds, with Breakfast Republic being the number one show for this age group in Ireland. Although 2FM does not target All Adults, Breakfast Republic has the same number of All Adults tuning in [167,000] every day as the Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show. Alot of hard work has gone into 2FM over the past two years and I am very grateful to all my colleagues both on and off air in RTÉ. However we all know that we are still early on in our journey. This period has also been very exciting with our collaboration with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and Jenny Greene. Last Friday, for the second time, we took the roof off the 3Arena and now we look forward to bringing this unique, live experience to Cork & Galway. Don’t miss it.” 

•        Breakfast Republic gains 13,000 listeners b-o-b to 167,000 and remains the number one radio show in Ireland for 15-34s
•        The Nicky Byrne Show with Jenny Greene gains 8,000 139,000 listeners (b-o-b)
•        Tracy Clifford increases by 6,000 listeners b-o-b to 119,000 (b-o-b)
•        The Eoghan McDermott Show is up 3,000 to 113,000 (b-o-b)
•        Game On increases listenership by 1,000 b-o-b and 2,000 y-o-y to 22,000
•        Rick O’Shea gains 4,000 on Saturdays b-o-b and up 6,000 on Sundays
•         Weekenders increases b-o-b by 11,000 listeners to 87,000 (Saturday)
•        Weekend Breakfast up 5,000 b-o-b to 53,000 (Saturday)
•               Larry Gogan is up 12,000 b-o-b to 109,000 on Saturdays and up 4,000 b-o-b to 73,000 on Sundays 
•         Dave Fanning gains 9,000 b-o-b to 76,000 on Sundays

RTÉ lyric fm

RTÉ lyric fm shows strong growth across many programmes, b-o-b, with gains for Marty in the Morning, Niall Carroll’s Lunchtime Favourites, Lorcan Murray’s Classic Drive on weekdays and Evelyn Grant’s Weekend Drive (Saturday)  and Evonne Ferguson’s Daybreak on weekends with double digit growth for The Hamilton Scores on Saturday and Sunday.

” RTÉ lyric fm holds a unique space in the radio market offering our loyal audience not just great radio content, but a state of mind and a sense of well being, lyric truly is a place where life sounds better. Today we’re delighted that more and more radio listeners are choosing to spend their time with lyric fm and we’ve seen gains across the schedule with notable growth in weekly reach up 23,000 listeners book-on-book to 310,000, the highest weekly reach ever.”  said Head of RTÉ Lyric fm, Aodán o Dubhghaill.

—-Ends—-

Date: 27 April 2017 

Notes to editors:

All comparisons are book-on-book or year-on-year as stated (2017-1 vs. 2016-4 for b-o-b and 2017-1 vs. 2016-1 for y-o-y).

All figures are All adults 15+ unless otherwise specified