Drifting away

The Ratner experience: consumers get the message when management demonstrates a lack of faith in a product. The BBC has opted to switch money away from BBC Local Radio in England, and we now have a set of listening figures that say listeners have got the message. 

Management were expecting weekly reach to fall to 5m; in Q4 2022, BBC Local Radio in England reached 5,657,000; in Q4 2023, BBC Local Radio in England reached 4,869,000. A loss of 788,000 listeners, a drop of 14%. 

Individually, some stations improved year-on-year; perhaps the publicity brought some listeners in, to see what all the fuss was about. In positive reach territory this quarter: Radio CWR, Radio Cumbria, BBC Essex, Radio Leeds, Radio Newcastle, Radio Northampton, Radio Oxford, Radio Stoke, Radio Suffolk, Three Counties, Wiltshire and York. But Leeds, Northampton and Oxford also saw a drop in hours of listening.