Radio listenership declined slightly in the 12 months to the end of September 2022 as 78.3% of Irish adults tuned in on a daily basis, a decline of 0.3% from the previous survey period, according to the latest JNLR/Ipsos report.
The report estimates that c.3.2m people listen to radio every weekday for an average of four hours, with national stations holding a 45.4% share and local or regional stations claiming the remaining 54.6%, a one-point swing to local from June.
The previous radio listenership survey covered the 12 months to June 2022, and is the reference point for comparisons.
A total of 16,800 people were interviewed during the survey period by Ipsos, on behalf of JNLR - Joint National Listenership Research - that is commissioned by national, regional and local stations, BAI, AAI, and IAPI.
All the major national stations registered declines in share of listenership, with the proportion of people listening to a national station down 0.7% to 42.7% and the number of people listening to any RTÉ station falling 0.8% to 30%.
In Association with
Radio 1 (-0.8% to 21.2%) suffered more than 2FM (-0.1% to 7.8%) and Lyric FM (-0.1% to 3.5%), but Today FM (10.8%) and Newstalk (10.6%) both saw their share decline by 0.2-0.3% as well.
Some 859,000 people now listen to Radio 1 on weekdays including 451,000 who tune into Morning Ireland, 344,000 to The Ryan Tubridy Show and 331,000 to Today with Claire Byrne.
Weekend programmes The Brendan O'Connor Show (345,000) and The Business (338,000) each gained 4,000 from the last survey.
"This book is a consolidation of radio and Radio 1's position post Covid," said Peter Woods, head of RTÉ Radio 1.
"It is encouraging to see many of our programmes attract unprecedented audiences, including the Brendan O'Connor Sunday programme which is neck and neck with the Saturday audience for the first time in that slot.”
2FM Breakfast added 1,000 listeners, bringing its audience to 124,000, while Movies and Musicals with Aedin Gormley (67,000) and Gormley's Sunday Matinee (47,000), both on Lyrics FM, each added 3,000 listeners.
Of the top 20 shows on Irish radio, Radio 1 accounted for 17, with Today FM hosting the remaining three (The Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show, Dermot and Dave, and Weekend Breakfast with Alison Curtis).
Newstalk has weekly listenership of 784,000, up 17,000 on last year, and a national weekly share of 7.1%, rising to 11.1% in Dublin (168,000 daily listeners).
Newstalk Breakfast is now listened to by 147,000 listeners daily, up 1,000, while Pat Kenny lost 7,000 listeners, reducing his audience to 177,000.
“We are delighted to see Newstalk retain its position as the Number One talk radio station for 20–44-year-olds nationally,” said Patricia Monahan, managing director of Newstalk.
Of the local stations, Cork's 96FM (23.8%) and C103 (19.8%) lost a share of 0.5% and 0.8%, respectively, in the Co Cork region, while Red FM was more or less stable at 28.3%.
In the capital, the biggest local stations are Spin 1038 (13.1%), FM104 (9.7%) and Sunshine 106.8 (7.8%).
