Local commercial radio audiences suffer

Local commercial radio stations have suffered a decline in audiences as BBC services continue to thrive, today's RAJAR figures show.

The share of all listening hours for BBC stations was 56.8% during the first three months of the year - up from 56% in the same period in 2007.

BBC Radio 1's share increased by half a percentage point year-on-year to 10.6%. Chris Moyles's audience continued to balloon, recording a new record weekly reach of 7.72m. The share of listening hours for BBC Radio 2 rose by 0.7 of a percentage point year-on-year.

Meanwhile, commercial stations' total share of listening has fallen further behind that of the BBC. The figure was 41.4%, down from 42.1% for the same period in 2007, with the drop mainly accounted for by local services.

Local commercial stations' share fell from 31.4% in the first quarter of 2007 to 30.3%.

Andrew Harrison, chief executive of the industry body, the RadioCentre, said: "Our market share figures are disappointing, reflecting the real challenge for over-regulated local commercial radio formats to compete against strong national talent.

Harrison said commercial radio was still enjoying "very strong" reach figures, however. Commercial stations reached 31m listeners in the quarter; for local commercial the figure was 24.8m; for BBC stations, 34.2m; and for BBC local stations, 10.3m.

Alison Winter, RadioCentre's head of audience insight, added: "It's a disappointing result, given the increases in audience, that share has dropped, and it is in local commercial services that the losses have been felt."

Jane Clancey, research account head for BBC audio and music, defended the commercial impact of the corporation's radio output. She said the BBC's duty was to reach as many licence fee payers as possible.