RTÉ One sees listeners switch off midweek – but flock back for the weekend

RTÉ RADIO One’s weekday schedule suffered the most significant losses, according to the latest Joint National Listenership Figures (JNLRs).

However, the station’s exclusive GAA rights resulted in a notable increase in weekend ratings – ‘Saturday Sport’ now reaches 212,000, an increase of 11,000 since last October, and 49,000 compared with figures dating from last February.

‘Morning Ireland’ remains the most listened to programme on the airwaves, with 423,000 listeners.

However, it dropped 11,000 when compared with the most recent JNLR figures three months ago.

Today FM also took a slight hit in the mornings, with Ian Dempsey’s show falling 9,000 to 160,000.

Newstalk ‘Breakfast’ dipped by 2,000 to 119,000 average listeners.

It was good news for RTÉ’s female broadcasters, ‘Marian Finucane on Sunday’ rose by

30,000 to 346,000, Claire Byrne jumped 22,000 to

238,000 and Miriam O’Callaghan saw a boost of

21,000 to 259,000.

Ivan Yates’ ‘Hard Shoulder’ nudged up 4,000 to 139,000, but over on Today FM his

TV3 ‘Tonight Show’ host Matt Cooper fell by 2,000 to

134,000.

Joe Duffy’s ‘Liveline’ drew in an impressive audience of

373,000, up 3,000 from three months ago but down 14,000 when compared with figures from this time last year.

Newstalk’s Sean Moncrieff increased by 2,000 to 82,000 while Today FM’s Fergal D’Arcy jumped 5,000 to

102,000.

Former Today FM star Al Porter chose to leave the station late last year following allegations of inappropriate behaviour.

Porter secured average ratings of 118,000 during his seven months on air.

His former slot, which was taken over by Muireann O’Connell in November and reduced by half-an-hour, is now reaching an audience of

98,000.

On Newstalk, Pat Kenny saw 7,000 listeners tune out as his ratings moved to

143,000.

Both Ryan Tubridy and Sean O’Rourke suffered losses of 12,000, with 318,000 and 312,000 respectively.

Ray D’Arcy’s afternoon show is also down 3,000 since the last poll, to 207,000.

RTÉ Radio boss Tom Maguire is confident both presenters will recover these losses in the months to come.

“We will have Sean getting out of studio and moving about,” Mr Maguire said.

“And we will be refreshing

Ryan’s team to reinvigorate it.”

Mr Maguire said he was unconcerned by the fall in figures as all stations suffered a loss.

“I think it’s seasonal, all radio stations are down slightly. I think that reflects more people at work or a change in listening habits,” he said.

“Our overall figures listening to Radio One for the year are up 39,000 so we possibly have more available audience at the weekend.”

On 2fm, Tracey Clifford’s ratings increased by 6,000 to 133,000.

Eoghan McDermott’s show now reaches 134,000, up

7,000 when compared with the October figures.

‘Breakfast Republic’, presented by Bernard O’Shea, Jennifer Zamparelli and Keith Walsh, dropped marginally by 3,000 to

186,000.