Latest UK   Radio Audience Figures  

The latest listening figures for radio listening in the UK were issued on 28th October and contained a few surprises. 

Commercial radio is reaching 36.8 million people across the UK, the biggest audience it has ever recorded, according to the  data. RAJAR has modified its way of collating and publicising listening  but the basic principles of REACH and audience SHARE still prevail. The total combined audience for all UK radio (BBC and commercial) is now the highest level recorded at 49.5m people. That represents 89% of the UK adult population.

THE KEY POINTS. 

• Digital listening surges to 65.8% of all radio listening
• New stations (Times, Capital Dance, Boom, etc) attracting hundreds of thousand s of listeners.

• DAB now the predominant platform for radio listening accounting for 43% of all listening compared to 34.2% for AM/FM

• New digital stations deliver strong performances

• Digital listening now accounts for the majority of in car listening at 53%

Digital listening has surged past 60% to now account for 65.8% – or almost two-thirds – of all radio listening, according to new data for Q3 2021 released by RAJAR today (28 October 2021). The data release marks RAJAR’s return to publication with a new modified methodology having been suspended for 18 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the new data, listening via DAB is now the most popular means of all radio listening accounting for 43% of all listening (and 65% of digital listening), exceeding listening via AM/FM which accounts for 34.2% of listening. Listening via online and apps accounts for 18.1% of all listening (and 27.5% of digital listening) and listening via DTV accounts for 4.7% of all listening (and 7.2% of digital listening).

The new data shows that 41 million adults, or 74% of the population aged 15+, now tune into digital radio every week, and 69% claim to own or have access to a DAB radio.

The strong performance of digital platforms has been boosted by the launch of a number of new digital stations in the last 18 months, which receive their first RAJAR results today,  including Times Radio with a reach of 637,000 listeners; Capital DANCE with a reach of 287,000 listeners; and Boom Radio with a reach of 233,000 listeners.

These stations join a host of established digital-only stations which continue to perform strongly, including  BBC 6 Music with 2.687 million listeners, and KISSTORY, the most popular commercial digital-only station, with 2.255 million listeners.  BBC Radio 4 Extra is the third most popular with 2.036 million listeners, followed by BBC Radio 5 live sports extra with 1.697 million listeners. Other stations in the top 10 are  digital-only stations Absolute 80s (1.690 million listeners); Virgin Radio (1.631 million listeners); and Heart 80s (1.493 million listeners).

INCAR RADIO LISTENING.   46.6% of listening in the car is to DAB while   AM/FM listening is 33.1%,. Online/apps listening in-car accounting for only 6.4% of all in car listening.

Source: RAJAR/Ipsos MORI/RSMB

  

  Watch out!

Hackers About!

Another Ransomware Attack 

on group of radio stations.

Tuesday 19 October 2021

A disturbing report from Seattle this morning that a group of stations have come under sustained cyber attack. The victims are the stations in what has been for many years called the Sinclair Broadcast Group but were sold to Lotus Communications three weeks ago for around $5 million cash plus a further $13 million in 'deals'.  Sinclair have retained the ongoing rights to the KOMO call letters and they will continue with their TV channel of that name. They now have around three hundred outlets.

The stations concerned are

News 1000 KOMOSeattle

97.7 KOMO-FM Oakville

97.7 K249DX Redmond,

Hot AC “Star 101.5” KPLZ Seattle 

and 

Conservative Talk 570 KVI Seattle

The attack was RANSOMWARE and manifested to listeners as key stations such as Star 101.5 having intermittent dead air,  songs skipping and no imaging (jingles and recorded liners) between the songs.   On 1000 KOMO, the company's main news outlet,  and on 97.7 KOMO FM,  a long-form talk show was broadcast to replace the station's regular news programmes when the studio IT kit crashed.   The cluster's online streaming for all those stations, plus KVI 570AM  all went down.  The company announced that many of its servers and in studio work stations were encrypted  or infected with ransomeware  and many of their office  networks were disrupted.   

The ransomware attack began to be noticed on Friday but intensified over the weekend.  Ransomware hackers often launch their attacks at the beginnings of weekends in the hope that victims will be short-staffed. In June, the Cox Media Group was also the subject of a ransomware attack that  left many stations unable to use their computers or phones for several days.

RANSOMWARE ATTACKS 

Ransomware attacks are becoming increasingly used to extort money from media companies.  A Trojan is usually fed into the broadcaster's system, often as a  malicious attachment, embedded link in a Phishing email. 

The program then runs a small programme which locks down the operating system. They will offer to call off the attack in return for online e payment - often in Bitcoin, which helps them cover their tracks and makes the payment non trackable.

The best solution is to have your systems always perform regular back ups, and ensure that key staff are able to execute procedures to restore your most vital files. Regular tests that the procedure is working are vital.  Have YOU ran yours this week?

KOMO, KPLZ and KVI are legendary heritage radio stations in America's north west and have previously had massive audiences. 

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