Beat has successfully retained its record-breaking daily audience size on the back of a positive day for Irish radio.
In May of this year, it was revealed that 101,000 people tune into Beat every day – the first time in the station’s 20-year history that daily listenership exceeded the much-coveted 100,000 mark. Beat has now succeeded in solidifying that number by retaining its daily audience size across the second quarter of 2023.
Beat’s strong audience data is indicative of Irish radio’s resilience amid an ever-changing media landscape. Radio enjoys huge listenership with 91% of Irish adults and 87% of 15–34-year-olds listening to radio every week.
Trust is a major factor when it comes to Irish radio’s popularity. Recent research by the European Broadcasting Union’s Media Intelligence Service (MIS) shows that Irish radio is the most trusted in Europe, with 80% of Ireland’s population stating that they trust what they hear on radio, that’s compared to social media’s trust rate of just 17%.
Having undergone important programming updates over the summer period, Beat is happy to report that these changes are yielding positive results. ‘Beat Breakfast’ has held onto its best-ever book of 52,000 listeners. Cillian Doyle’s all-new morning show, ‘Beat Throwbacks’, reported an impressive reach of 21,000 listeners, while Michelle Heffernan’s ‘Bring the Beat’ has hit the ground running – starting off with an impressive 45,000 listeners.
Speaking on the positive report, Beat CEO Gabrielle Cummins said: “This summer marked Beat’s 20 years of broadcasting & the station is always evolving based on what our listeners want. Our programming and creative teams have been working hard over the last few months to tweak Beat’s on air sound and these figures demonstrate our audience continues to like what they hear and we’re grabbing the attention of some new young ears which is great too. We’re excited about unveiling a new initiative this autumn that we’re confident will further cement Beat’s market-leading position in the South East so watch this space!”
Across Irish radio, there has been a steady increase of listening through smart devices with an increase of 7.6% of all listening through a smart speaker and 9% through a mobile device for the younger 15 to 34 age group. This positive trend towards increased smart speaker listening is reflected on Beat’s own streaming channels, Beat 102-103 and Noughty Beats. Inhouse data reveals that the station’s digital channels, have, on average, total listening hours of 250,000 per quarter.
The ability to access content easily and the quality and popularity of Irish radio is shown by this JNLR release reporting that the average adult is listening to radio content for over 4.1 hours each day. Beat's performance is reflective of this change in Irish radio. Between 2021 and 2021, the total time spent listening to Beat on smart speakers increased by 16%, while average listening time grew by almost 20 minutes.
Ciaran Cunningham, CEO of Radiocentre, Ireland said: “I am delighted to see that radio again has seen further growth in audience with a further 65,000 listeners each week. It is a testament to the hard work and investment from radio stations up and down the country creating brilliant content that over 3.3 million adults are listening to radio every single weekday, a record high in daily audience levels in recent years."
