The Power of Radio

Radio is a powerful Advertising medium and actually an Irish phenomenon (Radio is not as advertising dominant in the UK for example).

You will see Admatic Ad rates for each key station – just click in the Radio section on the homepage. Don’t neglect Radio in your Advertising. We’ve also developed our own easy, value, ready made Radio Readymade Campaign packages – make sure to click on those too.

Ask us on 085 7100458 and we’ll guide you through the Radio landscape.

Or buy spots direct here! https://app.admatic.ie/catalog/radio

Huge Listenership Generally

You’ll see data on each station as you browse but 78% of the Irish population (3.1m) listen to Radio every day and for an average of 4 hours. 71% of 15-34’s tune in every day and radio accounts for 66.5% of their time spent listening to audio, with 51% Female and 49% male, and 82% of Housekeepers tune in daily.

Radio listening in Ireland is split 64/36 urban and rural respectively, and radio stations across Ireland have over 11.3 million social media connections across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat so you/we can also use that. They’re generally happy to sell it as part of any media buying (!)

A recent (Q4 2022) JNLR (the Joint National Listenership Research which is an industry research project conducted on behalf of the Irish radio industry) shows Radio is a key medium for Irish people with 78% (3.18m) of the total adult population tuning in daily. The report shows that radio enjoys huge audience numbers with 79% of Irish adults and 68% of 15-34 year olds listening to radio every week. The main highlights are as follows:

  • While overall we’re seeing a slight decrease in programme listenership midweek, there’s a significant increase in weekend listening such as the Business and Playback.
  • Morning Ireland is still the most tuned in radio programme nationwide.
  • Radio One still has the largest market share nationally across a number of audiences. (And remember we’ve great RTE Radio deals which you’ll see in our Radio section off the homepage! You’ll not buy RTE Radio for less anywhere – including from RTE!) 

You can see Universal McCann’s take on it in our ‘News’ section but here’s RTE’s take too and to be fair, they are still dominant as you’ll see in the Top 20 listening of programmes  https://about.rte.ie/2022/11/10/latest-jnlr-radio-listenership-figures-released/

Lots of JNLR data is here too just click

JNLR-2022-2-(JUL’22)-Press Release-Final

JNLR Summary Q4 2022

UM JNLR detailed Q4 2022 vs Q4 2021

And this is detailed, but very important regarding Reach and Coverage 21-102667-JNLR 2022-Sales House Report 2022-4 (FINAL)

Various Lengths

Radio lengths are generally accepted as 15, 30 or 60 seconds long. 30 Second Radio commercials represent probably 95% of all Radio Commercial lengths as are costed in the radio section on the homepage (most Radio costs are therefore based on 30 seconds). Other lengths are not exactly pro-rata in cost terms and you can see a length cost converter in our ‘How Admatic works’ section if you want to use a different length. Shorter (10 or 15 second commercials) are of course, great for frequency (more spots).

Programme Spots or Packages

You can buy individual spots in particular shows, or, you can buy Packages or both (!). Most Radio airtime is sold as a ‘Package’ (number of spots at one price and usually in groups of 14, 21, 28 and 35 spot packages). Primarily there are two types. Prime Time Packages which feature prime broadcast times normally 7am-7pm and are consequently more expensive than Total Audience Packages (TAP) which have a wider broadcast time spread, normally 6am-midnight. But you can bolster a package by selecting key high-profile spots in key shows notably on RTE Radio One for example. Always good if you need to advise an internal/trade audience to listen in to the start of the campaign by having a guaranteed fixed spot/s.

Value

Generally TAP (Total Audience Packages) offer better value but you can buy it all in the radio section on the homepage. Our low prices are guaranteed as shown for bookings up to 12 months, so book now ahead at these prices because they will increase (yes, we’ve been advised) but we’ll always try to do even better for you and secure some extra bonus airtime where we can, after booking.

The JNLR (Radio Research) November 2022.

Click at the end here in the bold & Italics link, for a detailed analysis from Universal McCann (UM) station-by-station Nationally, Dublin and Cork JNLR Q3 2022 station breakdown

And an Irish Independent Analysis here too;

Morning Ireland loses 22,000 listeners, Ryan Tubridy drops 25,000 – but Newstalk shows report midweek growth, new Joint National Listenership Research (JNLR) figures show

RTÉ Radio 1 has suffered a listener slump across nearly all of its flagship shows, new figures reveal.

All of its weekday programmes have shed thousands of listeners, according to the latest Joint National Listenership Research (JNLR) figures while its sister station of 2fm is also down in popularity.

The drop-off in listeners is significant when compared to the last JNLR release on August 7. Morning Ireland has shed 22,000 listeners and now stands at 451,000, while Ryan Tubridy has lost 25,000 from the previous book and is at 344,000.

Today with Claire Byrne is down 19,000 in the latest survey, with 331,000, while News at One is at 325,000 – a drop of 9,000.

Even Joe Duffy’s Liveline had a slight drop of 11,000 listeners and is now at 321,000.

Ray D’Arcy’s mid-afternoon programme is haemorrhaging listeners and has dropped 18,000, down to 179,000. This is one of the lowest figures for that slot that’s been listed over the past 10 years. His Today FM afternoon show rival, Ray Foley, is hot on his heels, clocking in 149,000 listeners in the most recent survey. When asked about the slump in D’Arcy’s slot, head of RTÉ Radio 1 Peter Woods said that changes are needed to the show. “It is down and we do have to look at that programme,” he told Independent.ie.

“We changed the production team on it in the last while. It has one of the best series producers and also one of the best new producers. We got two new superb researchers so what we would be more looking at is the structure of the programme rather than the content. That’s where we think we probably have to go with it.”

Ronan Collins’s show is down 10,000 listeners to stand at 232,000 while Drivetime is now at 212,000, down from 216,000.

The news is better when it comes to RTÉ Radio 1’s weekend programmes, with Brendan O’Connor’s Sunday show up 4,000 to stand at 345,000, while his Saturday show is down 2,000 to 344,000. “There are less people overall listening. People are adjusting and going back to work”.

Miriam O’Callaghan’s Sunday slot is down 8,000 and is now at 331,000 while Sinéad Mooney’s Playback stands at 354,000. When asked about the weekday slump, Mr Woods attributed it to the change in working patterns as Ireland moves into a post-pandemic stage with more people back in their offices. He described it as a “resettlement”, given that they had unnaturally high listenership figures during the various lockdowns.

“Yes, programmes are down but that’s the universe we’re in. I don’t see significant gains on any of the other stations, across the board. Our audiences are bigger by definition,” he said. “Looking at pre-Covid figures, we are still in a better place than we were. There are less people overall listening. People are adjusting and going back to work.”

On 2fm, Breakfast is up 1,000 listeners to 124,000 while Jennifer Zamparelli’s show is down 7,000 to 131,000. There was no change for the 2 Johnnies slot, which stands at 122,000.

It was a mixed result for Newstalk with The Pat Kenny Show down 7,000 to 177,000 while Lunchtime Live is down 3,000 to 108,000.

Newstalk Breakfast with Ciara Kelly and Shane Coleman has gained 1,000 listeners to bring the show to 147,000, an all-time high for that slot while Moncrieff has added 3,000 listeners to reach 90,000. The Hard Shoulder is up 1,000 to stand at 156,000.

At the weekends, Off the Ball grew its Saturday show by 19,000 up to 143,000 while on Sunday it was up 22,000 to 153,000.

Newstalk’s managing editor Patricia Monahan said she was “delighted” to see it retaining its position as the most popular talk radio station among 20-44-year-olds. “It is fantastic to see growth right across the schedule,” she said.

Over on Today FM, the station said it has retained its status as the most popular commercial station with a 9.1pc market share. Ray Foley is proving popular with listeners, adding 6,000 to his afternoon slot bringing it up 6,000 to stand at 149,000.

Ian Dempsey, whose show now runs from 6-9am, has 199,000 listeners, down 2,000 from 201,000.

There have been drops in its other shows including Dermot & Dave, down 5,000, alongside Pamela Joyce who has dropped 4,000 and Matt Cooper who has shed 10,000 listeners.

Airtime availability

Although less of an issue during the Covid times, there may be some issues around the availability of the particular spots you’re looking for, particularly at peak times or for specific programmes that can sell out. Radio has really bounced back post-Covid and we sell more Radio on this platform than any other media. But we’ll advise you if there is.

Sending us your commercial

Easiest just to upload them to the platform in your own private dashboard for free! You can then track and store you commercials. Or, send them by email or WeTransfer to us (MP3 format best). See our ‘Copy & Dispatch’ pages. Need a Radio Commercial? See our ‘Creating your Advertising’ section on the homepage. Delighted to help.

Need any help now?

We want you to ask us! So please just do it. We’re very experienced in helping Advertisers achieve better Advertising. If you’re stuck, don’t give up.

stuart@admatic.ie