RTÉ Radio 1 losing listeners to its rivals

Good news for Newstalk, Today FM and even 2FM

RTÉ’S flagship Radio 1 station has lost listeners across several of its biggest weekend and weekday programmes, according to the latest Joint National Listenership Report.

Today With Seán O’Rourke saw the biggest drop, with a fall of 59,000 listeners year-onyear. Marian Finucane was close behind with a loss of 58,000 listeners on her Saturday slot, and 28,000 on Sunday.

Bryan Dobson’s recent addition to Morning Ireland alongside Gavin Jennings did not stop listenership falling from 441,000 to 431,000. The News at One, which Claire Byrne joined in February, had a small drop of 3,000 listeners.

The Ryan Tubridy Show dropped 32,000; Liveline with Joe Duffy dropped by 24,000 and The Ray D’Arcy Show by 21,000. Saturday With Claire Byrne fell by 11,000 listeners, and Sunday with Miriam O’Callaghan by 8,000.

Weekend sport brought strong growth to the station, with an increase of 30,000 on Saturdays and 33,000 on Sundays.

Speaking to the Irish Daily Mail, head of RTÉ Radio 1 Tom McGuire, said: ‘People at weekends, it’s definitely a different audience. They do different things and there’s a different pattern.’

He added: ‘I think it’s not so much about presenters, but the content. What’s there, what people are interested in and I think probably it’s more big talk rather than short sharp.

‘In terms of the presenters, we don’t have any plans to change anyone in the foreseeable future, but we will in terms of content.’

In contrast to Radio 1’s losses, young-adult oriented 2FM’s weekday shows grew by 79,000 listeners from last year.

Eoghan McDermott had the biggest growth for the station with an extra 23,000 listeners, with Breakfast Republic growing by 18,000.

The Nicky Byrne Show with Jenny Greene grew by 9,000, and Tracy Clifford by 10,000.

RTÉ 2FM boss Dan Healy said that 2FM ‘is now a 15-34 station’ since it underwent a revamp four years ago. ‘I’m happy with the 15-34s. We were burning, obviously, that older audience. That seems to have stopped.’

Over two million people tune in to RTÉ radio every week.

Today FM has overtaken RTÉ 2FM with 7.3% of the market share compared to 2FM’s 6.8%.

The Last Word with Matt Cooper is up 8,000, to 138,000. New addition to Today FM Muireann O’Connell has welcomed 3,000 new listeners to the station, with a daily audience of 101,000.

Newstalk’s listenership has grown by 43,000 in the past year – to 764,000 – with increases in listenership for both Newstalk Breakfast and Seán Moncrieff.

Pat Kenny saw no change in figures year on year, at 148,000.