The Dutch radio listening figures for September/October were published today by research bureau Intomart GfK. Market leader Radio 538 has increased its share by 0.3 percent, and consolidated its lead over second-placed Radio 2 which itself saw a 0.1 percent rise. But public ‘pop’ music network Radio 3FM saw the biggest gain, its share increasing 0.6 percent.
3FM’s gain seems to be partly at the expense of 100%NL, whose share decreased by 0.3 percent, the first fall recorded by this station after many months of steady rises.That said, its position as the 8th most popular station is under no threat as its nearerst rival, Radio 5, is behind by 1.8 percent. One-time market leader Sky Radio also fell again, and has now slipped to fourth place behind 3FM.
Also worth noting is a rise of Radio 10 Gold to 2.5 percent, making it by far the most popular station without terrestrial FM distribution.
The market shares of the stations (August/September figures in brackets) were as follows:
The big winner this month is public network
- Radio 538 10.7 (10.4)
- Radio 2* 10.1 (10.0)
- Radio 3FM* 9.2 (8.6)
- Sky Radio 8.6 (8.8)
- Radio 1* 7.4 (unchanged)
- Q-music 6.6 (unchanged)
- Radio Veronica 6.1 (6.0)
- 100%NL 4.4 (4.7)
- Radio 5* 2.6 (2.7)
- Radio 10 Gold 2.5 (2.3)
- Classic FM 1.9 (2.1)
- Radio 4* 1.8 (unchanged)
- Slam!FM 1.8 (2.0)
- Arrow Classic Rock 1.3 (unchanged)
- BNR Nieuwsradio 0.9 (0.9)
- TMF Hitradio 0.4 (0.5)
- Arrow Jazz FM 0.3 (0.4)
- Kink FM 0.3 (0.2)
- Radio 6* 0.2 (unchanged)
* Public network, others commercial
Regional public stations (cumulative) 12.2 (12.6)
Regional commercial stations (cumulative) 5.2 (5.1)
Other stations 5.5 (5.7)
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on Nov 27th, 2009 at 10:26
“Radio 4* 1.8 (unchanged)”
According to the article on this blog titled “Dutch classical music audience found too old”, Radio 4 has 700,000 listeners. If 700,000 listeners is 1.8% of the population, then the entire population of the Netherlands must be 39 million, which it isn’t.
What am I doing wrong here ? Is it something to do with the fact that the figures make no provision for those who listen to more than one station ?
on Nov 27th, 2009 at 11:58
No, the listening survey is based on diary entries by around 9,000-10,000 people a month. The market share figures are based on what stations people listen to each week. I would surmise that the 700,000 is a totaly yearly reach, not a weekly one. It has always been the case that the stations in the lower half of the table claim their listenership is under-represented. The figures we publish are the percentages of the total demographic. For stations targeting a niche audience, it’s necessary to look at their reach within the demographic categories they’re targeting. Sometimes this presents a completely different picture. The stations receive very detailed reports, which are far too complex to be published here. These are only the headline figures that are published on all the Dutch media sites.
on Nov 27th, 2009 at 12:25
It’s actually the difference between reach and share that is the issue here.
The 1.7% figure is Radio 4’s share of total listening. I.e. of all the hours people spend listening to the radio, 1.8% of those hours are Radio 4.
The 700,000 figure is the total number of individual people who listen each month. They might only listen for an hour a month, in which case they will add little to the share but still count toward the reach.
It basically means that there is no clear ‘winner’ in radio ratings. Stations with a large number of listeners who listen for a short period of time and those with a small number of listeners who listen for a long period of time can both claim to be ‘the most popular’ as the first will have a large reach and the second a large share.
on Nov 27th, 2009 at 13:19
So all that Radio 4 is saying is that 700,000 people sometimes listen to their station, which could be for half an hour once per year ?
on Nov 27th, 2009 at 13:57
Thank you Gavin. That’s a clearer explanation than the one I gave. Indeed, the stations (especially those lower down the scale) do exactly as you say. For example Arrow stresses to advertisers the combined reach of its two stations rather than its share, which of course is nothing to get excited about. Like politicians, radio station management will always pick out the figures that show them in the best light
on Nov 28th, 2009 at 10:52
You would have to check the Infomart source documents to find out over what period the audience reach is totalled up. It’s unlikely to be as long as a year. I have said ‘per month’ above but that may not be correct. RAJAR in the UK and Nielsen in Australia measure weekly reach.