2024 (the ups and downs of JNLR)

Lots happens in the radio industry each week so here’s a summary of the week we just enjoyed.

Here’s what happened

It’s that time one and all, the latest JNLR listenership numbers are here. Everything’s still moving along nicely, but let’s take a look at who’s going up and down with Irelands main stations.

Click here to skip the JNLR news

RTÉ Radio 1

Overall a good book this time for Radio 1. They didn’t have a great time in the last book so this will be a relief.

486,000 are tuning into Morning Ireland. That’s up 17,000 from last time which is really healthy.
336,000 tune in to Oliver Callan, which is a boost of 6,000.
Claire Byrne gets a boost of 3,000 for a total of 344,000. It’s not a massive jump but it’s a good steady increase.
221,000 tune in to Louise Duffy. That’s also a boost of 3000.
News at One has had a drop in its first book without Bryan Dobson. The show is down 6,000 to 295,000
Joe Duffy is holding on nicely above that 300,000 mark. He now has 302,000, a jump of 1,000.
The Ray D’Arcy Show had a great book, increasing 10,000 to reach 191,000. The show climbs ever closer to that 200,000 figure.
Drivetime goes from 220,000 to 224,000, which is, you guessed it, a 4,000 listener increase.

This was a good book for Radio 1. While nothing has exploded in terms of numbers, nothings had big drops either. The News at One is obviously going through change, but time will tell how it all plays out. Definitely better luck than last time,

RTÉ 2FM

2FM has had so much change over the past while that it’s probably not worth super deep analysis until things settle down a bit. however, let’s take a look at the current state of play.

149,000 are tuning in to 2FM breakfast each morning which is a boost of 6,000
141,000 are tuning in to Laura Fox, which is also a 6,000 listener jump.
128,000 are listening to Tracey Clifford, who is probably the most consistent voice on the station. She’ll be happy as that’s a boost of 7,000
157,000 are tuning in to 2FM Drive at the moment, which is a jump of 6,000

These are all super numbers for the station, but 2FM is on the verge of some of the biggest changes to its schedule ever. Dan Healy spoke about some of those changes in a press release.

We are in the middle of a process of discovering the next new radio talent for Ireland, almost 140 people are coming through 2FM over the next two weeks. We are meeting incredibly talented people from all walks of life.

Off the back of this strong book we look forward to building on these gains and bringing a new breakfast and evening drive show for the audience over the next few months.

This is really interesting stuff. The next year for 2FM is looking really exciting for sure.

Today FM

Things could definitely have gone better for Today FM. the station suffered a decrease in listeners on much of its daytime schedule this time around.

Ian Dempsey now has 210,000 listeners, a decrease of 6,000 tuning in each morning.
Dave Moore has 223,000 tuning in which is a drop of 5,000
131,000 tune in to Louise Cantillon, which is an 8,000 drop
155,000 listen to Ray Foley which is down 6,000. This breaks a streak of great gains for Ray.
Matt Cooper is down 10,000 and now has 171,000 listeners. Still very respectable but obviously not ideal

You’re always going to get bad books, but this really isn’t ideal for the station. Time will tell if they can reverse course.

Newstalk

Newstalk might have lost its managing editor, but it’s not losing listeners. The station had a really good performance this book.

Newstalk Breakfast has gained 11,000 and now sits at 168,000 listeners
Pat Kenny had a super book adding 15,000 listeners, now landing on 244,000
137,000 are listening to lunchtime live. That’s an incredible leap of 19,000 listeners. Super stuff
Moncrieff gets a respectable 3,000 listener increase and now has 108,000 tuning in.
The hard shoulder is up 7,000 and now sits at 155,000

If Bauer were upset by the numbers at Today FM they’ll be able to at least smile with the results for Newstalk. A brilliant book for the station no matter how you look at it.

The ups and downs continue

Well done to everyone who gained listeners in these books. For those who didn’t, just keep at it. Radio is a game of ups and downs. There are exciting times ahead in the Radio industry for sure with 2FM in particular looking quite interesting. time will tell how everything plays out.

More JNLR info can be found at the below links.

In other news

Bank Of Ireland has signed a new partnership with Off The Ball for rugby coverage.

The new deal agreed with Bauers Media Central will see bank of Ireland have a presents on OffThe Balls main radio show, as well as across the brands digital channels. It is set to run for 12 months under the current agreement.

This isn’t a full show sponsorship, with the deal instead focusing on Rugby. It just goes to show that OTB is a full brand now, capable of attracting multiple big name sponsors for different elements.

Sports is big business and Off The Ball is definitely one of the bigger sports focused media outlets in Ireland. The show on Newstalk is just one slice of the pie now which is interesting to see.

Read about the new deal here

And finally for now, RTÉ Midlands Correspondent Sinead Hussey is organising a bake sale to raise funds for charity.

This follows the sad death of CJ McCann, who died following a battle with an aggressive brain cancer called an Atypical Teratoid Rhabdoid Tumour (ATRT). CJ died at just 21 months old.

The family have been fundraising for vital cancer services that helped them on their journey, and have already raised over €150,000.

Usually stories like this end up in our Quick bits section, but I think it’s important to recognise people’s amazing generosity. Well done to everyone involved, and hope the upcoming fundraisers go well.

Read about the upcoming fundraisers here

Quick Bits

Presenter Brian Dowling has criticised Ireland’s surrogacy laws

A bursary is being set up in memory of broadcaster Gerry Anderson

Peadar Breathnach is reportedly joining RTÉ

98FM is hosting a big summer safari at Dublin Zoo

Laura fox has got engaged

And that’s the summary for this week. Come back to radio land next week for more radio news📻 and be sure to check us out on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn for more fun from the world of radio.

This week in radio 10/8/2024 (Bauer officially own beat)

Lots happens in the radio industry each week so here’s a summary of the week we just enjoyed.

Here’s what happened

Bauer Media have officially taken control of Beat, after purchasing the south east station from The Irish Times.

The cash machine is already airing on Beat, with players now being encouraged to text Beat to 57557. It really is wild how quickly stations can be integrated into the group like this.

Now that Bauer have stations in many of the main markets it’s interesting to think about what’s next. Do they develop one central brand? Try expand further? With Bauer also owning ad sales company Media Central they really don’t have any major competition outside of Wireless group or RTÉ.

Beat seemed to do well with The Irish Times, so it will be interesting to see how Bauer decide to shake things up.

Beat was tightly linked with WLR in the past, so WLR is out on its own now in some ways too. WLR remains part of The Irish Times.

Interesting times ahead for sure. Let’s hope all goes smoothly down in the South East.

Check out the Beat Cash Machine

Radiocentre Ireland have shared earnings for the radio industry for the first half of 2024.

In short, things are moving along nicely. In total the industry had advertising revenue of €77.9 million for the first half of 2024. That’s a jump of 2%.

There has been some errors with these numbers in some articles, but the break down seems to be as follows.

€59.5 million came from regular spot revenue, which remains flat.
€14.8 million came from sponsorships, partnerships, and other forms of branded content. This is an area getting consistently healthy growth growing 9% this time around
€3.5 million came from Didgital revenue. This really is insanely low when you look at the money that can be made with digital content, but it is up 8.3%

All in all these are healthy numbers. The radio industry could definitely be doing more in the digital space if it wanted, so hopefully they try double down on that in time.

Check out the details from Radiocentre here

Finally for now, Ryan Tubridy is smashing it on Virgin Radio in the UK.

We don’t normally look at things in the UK, but there is significant Irish interest in this specific case. Ryan now has 503,000 listening on Virgin, not including Q102.

When Ryan was with RTE he was bringing in between 300,000 and 400,000 listeners, so in many ways despite the chaos of last year tubs is doing better than ever.

When you think that Ryan was ready to return to RTÉ for a daily radio show as well as a podcast for €170,000 a year it’s clear that RTE really did miss out.

Anyways, RTÉs loss is Virgins gain. Fair play to Ryan on the success, and all the best for the future.

Check out Ryan’s listenership here

Quick Bits

Irelands Classic Hits are promoting their next listener party in Dublin

RTÉ are looking for a Time Checks Sponsor for Radio 1

The Today FM Sound Garden stage is back at Electric Picnic

Opinion: how do we fund public service content on commercial broadcasters?

This week I wanted to do something slightly different for Radio Land. Your regular news summary will be back next week, but for now i wanted to take a deep dive into a topic creating a lot of talk in recent weeks.

Should local radio get state funding?

Ever since we heard that RTE would be receiving secure funding for the next three years, every other broadcaster has also wanted money. Who could blame them? All broadcasters definitely do provide a huge public service, so arguing they should get funding does make sense.

It’s not just limited to radio either. In the TV space, both Virgin Media and TG4 have also been looking for more cash, so basically everyone in media wants money right now.

While all of these broadcasters do provide a valuable public service, only RTÉ and TG4 are true public service broadcasters. Most of the others are commercially owned, often by billionaires.

With that in mind, how do we fund them? Handing money to a commercial entity like Virgin or Bauer with no strings attached clearly seems like a bad idea, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t put some money on the table to keep high quality public service content on these stations.

How much money do we offer to commercial broadcasters? And what are they willing to give us in return? Maybe we already have the answer…

The Sound and vision scheme is actually kinda cool.

Most readers here will be aware of the Sound and vision scheme from ⁨Coimisiún na Meán⁩. Basically a production company or broadcaster pitches a public service show or format, and then ⁨Coimisiún na Meán⁩ partly funds it. This is actually a great system.

Fantastic high quality content ends up airing on independent broadcasters, and we’re not just handing over money with no strings attached.

The more I think about how to fund independent public service content, the more I think an expansion of sound and Vision is the answer. So, here’s my pitch for how we evolve local radio funding and how we ensure the listeners are the ones who benefit.

1. New obligations for broadcasters

If we’re going to be funding broadcasters with tax payer money then it’s fair to expect high standards.

This also gives us an opportunity to deal with some of the criticisms regularly levelled at the Radio industry.

A minimum of 25% of music played must be from Irish artists
Stations must have a minimum 4 minutes of news at the top of each hour. This news can not be networked between 7am and 8pm
Irish language news bulletins must air for 4 minutes every 3 hours
A transcript of all news bulletins must be made available online to ensure accessibility for those who are hard of hearing.
A report dealing with revenue and prizes for text to win contests must be published monthly to ensure transparency.
Networking can’t take place in prime time, between 7am and 8pm.

There are other requirements I think stations should need to follow, but let’s not be too greedy.

2. Reforms of Sound and Vision

The Sound and Vision Scheme really isn’t too bad as it is. It just needs more funding. However, there are some small changes that would be nice.

⁨Coimisiún na Meán⁩ should review funded content to ensure that it met its public service obligations.
Content funded through the scheme must air in prime time.
The scheme should expand to include digital media. (Full transparency, I work on public service digital content for my day job)
Funded content should be shared online and there should be a central repository.
A report each year should state how much funding was given for content on each broadcaster.

Other than that I don’t see a whole lot that needs changing. Sound and Vision is a really good scheme, and I think it’s the best way we can find high quality public service content without just handing money to broadcasters in a free for all.

Conclusion

Look, every broadcaster would love a free for all, and I know many will say an expanded Sound and Vision isn’t good enough.

In some ways they’re right. I’m honestly not too concerned about wireless group or Bauer, but I do wish there was a better way to support those smaller local broadcasters.

We’ve seen huge change in the media industry in recent years and I think now is the time to ensure that listeners get high quality content wherever they listen. Just handing over money isn’t the answer, but perhaps an expanded Sound and Vision scheme with stricter public service obligations for broadcasters might be the winning approach.

What do you think?

How should we fund public service content on commercial radio? Should it be funded at all? Share your thoughts now on our social media.

This Week In Radio 27/7/2024 (security and rage)

Lots happens in the radio industry each week so here’s a summary of the week we just enjoyed.

Here’s What Happened

So, we officially know how RTÉ will be funded, and they know what they’re getting.

725 million over the course of three years. this will mostly be made up by the existing Licence fee, but any shortfall will be made up by the exchequer.

In 2025 RTÉ will get €225 million, in 2026 they will see €240 million, and the final year of the deal will see RTE funded with €260 million. Let’s say in a wild world that the licence fee brings in €200 million in 2025, the exchequer will then add on the missing €25 million RTÉ needs. This should hopefully give them enough funding to evolve the services and remain relevant.

While RTE seemed mostly happy, some were not. RTÉ’s biggest competitor Virgin Media weren’t happy that they didn’t get a slice, while the NUJ didn’t like that the licence fee was retained. You’ll never please everyone when spending public money, so this is all just to be expected.

The NUJ do have a fair point, but the deal is done now and should hopefully result in some boosts for journalism even if it’s not perfect.

The press conference after all of this was extremely heated, with the Irish Independants Ireland Editor Fionnán Sheahan raising his voice towards the minister and officials. The minister called him on it, and the whole thing was kind of ugly. The Journal had an excellent recap of the incident here that’s well worth a read.

Hopefully now we can start moving on. I hope to see RTÉ and other broadcasters doing cool stuff rather than fighting for funding, and For a few years at least there’s some clarity.

Read about the funding here

Three people stand showing off the new diversity and inclusion strategy for the independent radio sector.

The IBI have launched a new equality strategy for independent broadcasters, following the recent publication of guidelines by ⁨Coimisiún na Meán⁩.

I don’t talk about it too much here, but I personally have a disability. I think anything we can do to help improve inclusion both on air and in media workplaces is very welcome.

This is definitely a step in the right direction, and I just hope we see genuine action over the next few years in this area.

It’s not just minorities either. We’ve heard calls from Why Not Her to better playlist female artists, so I definitely think stuff like that should be worked on over the next few years.

Radio is a great industry, but strategy documents like this can help make it better. I’d love if more stations started including accessibility alt text on social media as an example, as it’s such an easy win.

Well done to everyone behind this, it really is great to see.

Read about the new strategy here

And finally for now, defamation law is getting much needed reform.

It’s not a sexy topic by any stretch, but reforms to Irelands defamation legislation is something journalists have wanted for a long time. Let’s take a look at some of the changes and see what it’s all about.

The key points include…

The end of Jury’s in defamation cases. Now a judge will decide if a defendant had been defamed, and will also set the damages to be paid.
New mechanisms to defend against SLAPP suits, Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation. This can help if a journalist is sued to stop legitimate reporting for example.
Measures to protect broadcasters from what guests might say on live shows. There are strict rules on this but it all seems reasonable.

This is all good stuff, but not everyone is happy. Understandably some in the justice system argued this week that Jury’s should still be involved, but many in media will argue that just raises costs for everyone.

Time will tell how this plays out, but it will likely come as a relief for many journalists and producers.

Read about the new laws here

Quick Bits

RTÉ will audition 150 people for 2FM

John Bennett who co launched BBC Radio Ulster has passed away

Adrian Flannelly⁩ who was a huge voice on Irish radio in the states has passed away

Louise Cantillon is becoming a style icon

This Week In Radio 20/7/2024 (Newspapers Fight Back)

Lots happens in the radio industry each week so here’s a summary of the week we just enjoyed.

Here’s What Happened

Broadcaster Joe Malloy speaking at a live event

Broadcaster Joe Malloy is set to leave Newstalk sports show Off The Ball.

Joe is making the move over to The Independent, where he will be launching a new daily podcast. He will also continue to host sports coverage for Virgin Media Television.

The Independent already has some success in the Podcast space, with The Indo Daily performing particularly well. This new podcast will be a new audio venture for the newspaper, and with a name like Joe Molloy attached it will likely be a good move.

It’s fascinating to see how traditional Newspapers are starting to really invest in audio. Both The Irish Times and The independent now have audio operations of note, and it seems to be a growing area for the traditional players.

This will be a big shift for OTB, as Joe Molloy has been involved for 14 years. Time will tell how it all plays out. Best wishes to all involved in the new podcast and the new Off The Ball. Exciting times ahead for sure.

Read about Joe Molloys new gig here

Leaks this week seem to suggest that a plan is nearly ready to go for the future funding of RTÉ.

In an agreement set to go before cabinet on Wednesday, it’s believed that the €160 licence fee will remain, with some form of exchequer funding set to make up the shortfall.

In a move unique in Ireland, RTÉ would become the only state body funded on a multi year basis, allowing for better planning and resource management. This also ensures for example that RTÉ’s funding is somewhat secure, minimising the risks of political pressure.

We’ll likely get more details next week, but, this is definitely interesting to see. a licence fee will always be unpopular so it’s not ideal, and it definitely leaves an attack vector open for the broadcaster, but with that said if this can stabilise RTÉ for a few years then it should be worth it.

Definitely an interesting week ahead as a long running drama seems to be reaching its conclusion.

Read about the new RTÉ funding here

Laura fox stands on an orange background with text reading the Laura Fox Show, weekdays 9-12

Finally for now, RTÉ might be on the verge of getting more secure government funding, but their commercial revenue is also super important.

RTÉ isn’t allowed carry nearly as many ads as commercial broadcasters, but it still makes up an important chunk of change.

The broadcaster is now looking to find a new sponsor for the Laura Fox Show, which recently replaced the Jennifer Zamparelli show on 2FM. How much does it cost you might ask? Well…

A 6 month sponsorship of the show will set a brand back €100,000
If you want the whole year, you can grab that for €195,000. That means you’re getting €5,000 off.

It’s definitely an expensive sponsorship, but I guess the show has a good youth audience so may well be worth it to some brands.

I always find it interesting to see how much sponsorships cost, as ultimately its sponsor money that keeps presenters employed. Time will tell what brand jumps on board,

RTÉ are actually hiring someone at the moment to take care of digital audio ads, so this is definitely a very important area.

Read about the sponsorship here