Media & Marketing: People in the radio business are still scratching their heads this week about a sharp fall in the levels of radio listenership in the Republic.
Various explanations have been advanced for the trend, including the inclusion of CD players as standard in cars and a general disenchantment with the type of radio available.
But one wonders is the real culprit the iPod?
Is it possible that younger listeners in particular are spending several hours a day listening to downloaded tracks on their iPods rather than flicking through the dial and listening to the 28 commercial radio services available in the Republic.
In last week's JNLR figures, 85 per cent of adults said they listened to at least one radio service during the day, but this was down from 89 per cent in the previous period.
Dublin advertising agency AFA O'Meara said this week that the decline in listenership was widespread. "The 4 per cent decline in radio listenership seems to be across the population, but in particular amongst single people, 55-64 year olds and farmers."
The agency also noted that listenership in Dublin was down even further, from 85 per cent to 81 per cent.
While it's impossible to say for certain what is the cause, the agency believes it is due in "no small part to... the internet, iPods and mobile phone usage".
With Apple shipping more than 4.5 million iPods a quarter and other MP3 players gaining ground, there is a danger that radio listening figures could stagnate in the low 80s in the period ahead.
Despite this, several radio groups are preparing expressions of interest for the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland, suggesting new radio services are needed.
Magazine spending
While the radio sector may be in danger of stagnation, 2005 has been a good year so far for magazine publishers.
New figures from the Institute of Advertising Practitioners of Ireland show advertising spending on magazines up from €6.2 million to €9 million in the January-March period. This is a 45 per cent increase.
Strangely, the increase in magazine spending does not appear to have hurt any other sectors, with press, TV and radio all pulling in more advertising revenue in 2005 than the same time last year.
Dialogue a winner
Dialogue, the Dublin brand agency, won the agency of the year award at the An Post Irish direct marketing awards held in Dublin last week.
The agency, whose clients include ESB, MBNA, Bank of Ireland, VHI and Microsoft, has already won three awards this year, including the John Caples award in New York, a gold award at the Echos festival in New Orleans and two golds at the UK Campaign magazine awards in London.
Cinema ad growth
While it remains the poor relation of the advertising industry, cinema advertising has been growing strongly in recent years, with much of the activity in the Republic coming from ITV-owned Carlton Screen. Until recently, the company had a staggering market share of 95 per cent in the Republic .
However, things have changed a little in the past few weeks. Pearl & Dean, a company owned by Scottish Media Group, have pinched some of the big Irish cinema screen contracts from Carlton Screen.
While these wins have been the result of international re-alignments, it certainly makes the Irish market a little more competitive.
This week, Pearl & Dean won the contract for the Ster Century multiplex cinema in west Dublin and it now boasts a market share in the Republic of more than 27 per cent.
It will be interesting to see if Carlton responds to this or if a third player enters this market.
But, regardless of what happens, it is not going to be easy for either Carlton or Pearl & Dean. Last year, according to industry figures, cinema advertising in the Republic only amounted to €10 million. While this was up by almost 13 per cent on 2003, it was dwarfed by the €236 million spent on television and the €928 million spent on newspapers.
