RTE holds onto radio audience, says survey

A number of RTÉ's flagship radio programmes made increases to their number of listeners, according to the latest research figures released today.

Marian Finucanewith 390,000, Today with Pat Kennywith 352,000 and Morning Irelandwith 512,000 all increased their audience in 2002, according to the latest JNLR/MRBI 2001 survey.

The RTÉ group of stations - RTÉ1, 2FM and Lyric FM - lost 1 per cent of its market share to 46 per cent, although its reach remained steady at 53 per cent.

The programme with the sharpest audience increase is the Livelineprogramme hosted by Joe Duffy, which saw its audience grow from 334,000 to 365,000.

Today FM increased its market share by 1 per cent to 10 per cent and an audience reach of 17 per cent.

Local independent stations saw their market share reduced slightly but continued to perform strongly, maintaining a 44 per cent market share.

On 2FM, The Full Irishwith Ryan Tubridy gained over 23,000 listeners to 218,000.

Today FM's The Last Wordcurrent affairs programme, now presented by Matt Cooper, reported a listernership of 192,000.

Lyric FM records a listenership figure of 4 per cent, which is unchanged over the 12 months.

Information on four new entrants to the market, saw Newstalk 106FM claim 2 per cent of the "yesterday audience" (the number who have heard a given station) over the six month period between July to December 2002. Its market share was recorded at zero.

Red 104-106 FM in Cork reported a market share of 6 per cent and an audience reach of 21 per cent over the same six month period.

The Dublin station Lite FM is shown to have lost some ground on the established stations FM104 and 98FM. Lite FM's audience reach dropped by 1 per cent to 12 per cent; FM104 and 98FM have lost 1 and 2 per cent of listeners, respectively.