The latest listenership figures published today again confirm the special relationship Irish people have with radio.
The JNLR results, which cover the period April 2016-March 2017, show that more than 3 million Irish people listen to radio every day, and they listen on average for over four hours each day.
Choose Radio April JNLR video April 2017 from Orangeye Media on Vimeo.
In the South East, Beat is playing its part in the Irish radio success story, with 157,000 listening to the regional station each week.
When it comes to people aged under 35, radio accounts for 73.1% of their time spent listening to audio. This compare with “Own music” at 17.8% and streaming at 7.2%.
Beat’s flagship chat show Beat Breakfast continues to attract thousands of people to radio each morning. Beat Drive with Andy Mac has been the perfect companion for evening commuters for almost 14 years and his show has just reached a record high – with 50,000 people joining Andy every day.
The station has also seen a record audience for its long-running weekend show, Old Skool Sunday. Pete Windle now has 44,000 people tuning in for their old skool fix each week.
Radio has proven time and again to be the original social media and Irish radio now has almost 8 million connections on social networks.
Chairperson of the Choose Radio Group and Beat Boss Gabrielle Cummins said “despite the plethora of audio options and listening choice available, Irish audiences still gravitate towards radio. Even in the younger demographic when the perception is that other audio is more prevalent, the opposite is actually true with 1 million 15-34 year olds choosing radio every day.”
She added “Irish radio listeners are extremely loyal to the radio with 1.269 million people only listening to one radio station and 744,000 listening to two or more radio stations”.
Head of Station Sound with Beat, Niall Power, said “We’re now living in an attention economy where radio is battling new ‘frenemies’ all the time for the attention and time of individuals. To see that Irish people give over four hours of their day on average to radio really reinforces that special connection and highlights the quality content & output of Irish radio every day.”
“At Beat, we’re thrilled to see more people listening in every week. Our policy of “On Air, Online and On The Street” is also evident with almost three quarters of a million connections on social networks” concluded Power.
Beat 102-103 is the market leading radio station in the South East and broadcasts to Wexford, Waterford, Carlow, Kilkenny and South Tipperary.
** Source: JNLR/Ipsos/MRBI 2017-1, South East Region
