Category: Radio

Date: 23.11.2004
Printable version

Nearly six million people used the BBC's radio websites in October, listening to more than 10 million hours of radio via the internet and generating almost 160,000,000 page impressions, new figures reveal.

The first set of monthly figures to be released by the BBC's Radio and Music Interactive department shows record levels of online popularity for BBC's national radio networks based on unique users, live and 'on demand' listening via the BBC Radio Player and web page impressions.

Radio 1 broke all its previous records in October and illustrated the value of its website in the wake of John Peel's death as users flooded in to pay their respects.

Within hours, 10,000 tributes had been posted on the John Peel minisite, while the BBC Radio Player allowed an estimated 150,000 people to listen again to tribute programming on Radio 1, Radio 4 and the World Service.

Radio 4 claimed first and second places in the month's top 30 'on demand' radio programmes (listened to online at bbc.co.uk/radio after broadcast): Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy smashed all previous performances with an incredible one million 'on demand' listens (including two weeks in September) while The Archers registered more than 300,000 requests.

The BBC's new digital networks enjoyed an impressive month online, with 1Xtra's Black History Month minisite helping the network past the 450,000 unique user mark for the first time, while usage of the Asian Network website rose by more than a third, partly in response to the popularity of the network's daily soap, Silver Street.

6 Music showed strong live listening with nearly 400,000 hours consumed during the month and BBC 7 increased its monthly user tally for the eighth month in a row, now standing at a record 270,000 unique users.

Experimental Radio 1 show OneClick, featuring music, comedy, movies and speech, was devised with online listening in mind as it occupies a 3.00am slot.

Its strong online presence and creative programming paid off with more than 85,000 'on demand' requests in October.

Jenny Abramsky, BBC Director of Radio, said: "The BBC is at the forefront of digital radio and these figures reflect the growing importance of new media in the industry and our commitment to offer audiences a range of ways to listen.

"The BBC Radio Player allows people to listen to our programmes whenever they want and its remarkable success marks another step towards a digital Britain."

Simon Nelson, Controller of BBC Radio & Music Interactive, said: "These are the first set of monthly statistics we have published and they show record numbers for both online listening and web traffic.

"Their publication underlines our commitment to digital radio and highlights our extra responsibility to invest in moving radio and its listeners forward, using and consuming new technology."

The figures are audited twice a year (typically March and September) by ABCe and do not include any requests from within the BBC.

The next set of figures will follow in mid-December.

Top 30 on demand programmes - October 2004

	Programme	Station	Monthly listens
1	Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy	Radio 4	653,636
2	The Archers	Radio 4	382,726
3	Chris Moyles	Radio 1	325,975
4	John Peel	Radio 1	199,991
5	The Official Chart Show	Radio 1	188,223
6	Essential Mix	Radio 1	178,609
7	The Essential Selection	Radio 1	175,669
8	Dance Anthems	Radio 1	166,379
9	The Afternoon Play	Radio 4	147,317
10	Today	Radio 4	135,654
11	Jonathan Ross	Radio 2	134,127
12	Judge Jules	Radio 1	122,246
13	The News Quiz	Radio 4	120,914
14	Live & Exclusive	Radio 2	114,610
15	Terry Wogan	Radio 2	102,040
16	Gilles Peterson	Radio 1	101,827
17	Blue Room	Radio 1	93,583
18	I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue	BBC 7	89,286
19	Oneclick	Radio 1	85,572
20	Zane Lowe	Radio 1	79,381
21	Book of the Week	Radio 4	77,808
22	Annie Mac	Radio 1	74,744
23	The Radio 1 Rap Show	Radio 1	69,172
24	Book at Bedtime	Radio 4	66,318
25	Mark Radcliffe	Radio 2	63,529
26	Sounds of the 60s	Radio 2	61,457
27	The Album Chart Show	Radio 2	59,919
28	Uptown Anthems	1Xtra	58,236
29	Fighting Talk	Five Live	56,319
30	Trevor Nelson	Radio 1	55,329

Total - All Networks

	All BBC Radio
	Oct-03	Sep-04	Oct-04
Unique Users	3,956,890	5,287,589	5,867,362
Page Impressions	96,334,782	137,685,954	156,395,423
On demand listening requests	4,466,378	6,722,001	7,693,418
On demand listening hours	1,828,887	3,678,734	4,063,378
Live listening hours	4,728,225	6,087,765	6,095,204

Total - By Network

Radio 1 broke its previous records in all five categories, driven by listeners responding to the news of John Peel's death by posting tributes and listening on demand to a wealth of Peel-related programming:

	Radio 1
	Oct-03	Sep-04	Oct-04
Unique Users	1,473,390	1,983,799	2,352,366
Page Impressions	24,425,765	36,600,663	40,497,389
On demand listening requests	1,283,721	1,935,332	2,224,254
On demand listening hours	604,775	1,223,819	1,257,007
Live listening hours	1,297,100	1,581,897	1,604,085

Radio 2 achieved record page impressions and listening hours in October, driven by content supporting its Radio 2 in Liverpool week and on demand listening to its Saturday night Live and Exclusive sessions, which last month included Robbie Williams and REM:

	Radio 2
	Oct-03	Sep-04	Oct-04
Unique Users	637,044	819,693	909,273
Page Impressions	11,838,250	16,818,726	19,058,623
On demand listening requests	754,557	1,116,286	1,165,393
On demand listening hours	313,321	571,918	610,009
Live listening hours	967,583	1,370,881	1,370,849

Radio 3 delivered record on demand listening hours in October, with Andy Kershaw and Choral Evensong battling it out for the top spot.

A recent redesign of the Radio 3 site has resulted in a decrease in page impressions, though users have increased and improvements in usability mean that users find what they're looking for in fewer clicks:

	Radio 3
	Oct-03	Sep-04	Oct-04
Unique Users	330,160	335,786	347,932
Page Impressions	4,110,280	3,773,091	3,993,982
On demand listening requests	331,718	360,387	426,861
On demand listening hours	154,648	209,112	222,852
Live listening hours	263,149	266,780	279,479

Radio 4 smashed all previous records thanks to the overwhelming success of Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy which generated more than a million on demand listening requests and attracted over 40,000 players to its interactive adventure game:

	Radio 4
	Oct-03	Sep-04	Oct-04
Unique Users	740,504	1,192,134	1,247,445
Page Impressions	13,654,757	20,849,291	30,939,922
On demand listening requests	1,127,260	1,659,519	1,988,212
On demand listening hours	453,481	726,975	886,676
Live listening hours	768,762	922,816	983,590

Radio Five Live's Digital Week contributed a month of unprecedented interactivity on the station, with on demand listening hours at an all time high.

Christian O'Connell's Fighting Talk proved the most popular programme, accounting for 13.5% of Five Live's on demand listening hours:

	Radio Five Live
	Oct-03	Sep-04	Oct-04
Unique Users	503,610	633,867	684,756
Page Impressions	23,220,060	32,960,522	33,288,957
On demand listening requests	163,578	334,202	349,051
On demand listening hours	41,081	70,721	84,909
Live listening hours	462,957	639,750	723,167

1Xtra's coverage of the Mix Show Power Summit in Puerto Rico and Black History Month helped the site past the 450,000 unique user mark for the first time, a year-on-year increase of over 50%.

The network also delivered record live and on demand listening hours, with Ronnie Herel's Uptown Anthems squeezing into the Top 30 on demand programmes:

	1Xtra
	Oct-03	Sep-04	Oct-04
Unique Users	303,896	417,695	466,759
Page Impressions	5,420,123	6,193,638	7,041,857
On demand listening requests	390,041	522,499	601,352
On demand listening hours	168,631	271,924	311,619
Live listening hours	197,251	228,167	243,936

6 Music unique users, page impressions and on demand listening requests all rose in October, buoyed by the station's Bad Record Amnesty, which prompted a threefold increase in the website's message board traffic:

	6 Music
	Oct-03	Sep-04	Oct-04
Unique Users	293,638	357,437	364,290
Page Impressions	2,844,516	4,008,927	4,160,702
On demand listening requests	122,746	231,985	236,160
On demand listening hours	58,558	131,544	130,473
Live listening hours	287,576	387,319	377,643

Asian Network website usage went up by more than a third in October, partly in response to promotion of Silver Street, its new daily radio soap.

Live and on demand listening hours also reached new highs:

	Asian Network
	Oct-03	Sep-04	Oct-04
Unique Users	123,900	130,769	187,043
Page Impressions	1,786,990	1,878,261	2,488,531
On demand listening requests	77,375	114,247	147,109
On demand listening hours	26,649	55,400	62,594
Live listening hours	86,622	99,396	103,138

BBC 7 increased its monthly user tally for the eighth month in a row, now standing at a record level.

On demand listening was the biggest driver with hours consumed approaching half a million:

	BBC 7
	Oct-03	Sep-04	Oct-04
Unique Users	137,634	257,870	270,754
Page Impressions	2,185,334	4,308,724	4,667,024
On demand listening requests	35,715	168,507	238,056
On demand listening hours	7,743	417,321	497,239
Live listening hours	278,596	268,191	281,736

Five Live Sports Extra returned to more modest traffic levels in October (after record listening to the Champions Trophy in September), with Premiership and Rugby League commentary accounting for the bulk of listening:

	Five Live Sports Extra
	Oct-03	Sep-04	Oct-04
Unique Users	50,230	160,705	109,605
Page Impressions	254,830	1,344,982	429,211
On demand listening requests	N/A	N/A	N/A
On demand listening hours	N/A	N/A	N/A
Live listening hours	21,995	222,575	20,772

Definitions

Page Impression

One page impression is counted for every successful webpage request that displays the desired content in a user's browser

Unique Users

One unique user is counted for every distinct 'cookie' which has visited a website within a given timeframe (in this instance, a month).

A cookie is a small piece of information that a server sends to a user's computer to identify that computer on its return.

On demand listening requests

One on demand listening request is counted for every non-live programme stream requested and successfully delivered via the BBC Radio Player

On demand listening hours

One on demand listening hour is counted for every hour of non-live audio streamed via the BBC's radio websites

Live listening hours

One live listening hour is counted for every hour of live BBC radio streamed online

How the stats are collected and audited

In all cases, only requests that originated external to the BBC are counted. We count no internal traffic.

Page requests and unique users

Page request and unique user data is taken from the BBC web server logs.

The data is cleaned to give only those requests that are related to legitimate page requests as defined by ABCe.

We then count the number of requests seen for each particular item of content (such as a radio website), and also the number of unique cookies associated with those requests.

Each cookie count is de-duplicated (ie each cookie is only counted once towards any given piece of content in any given time span).

Play requests and durations for live and on-demand audio

The live and on-demand audio play request and duration data is taken from the BBC media serving logs.

Currently the BBC serves two types of media content, Real Media and Windows Media.

The data is cleaned to give only those requests that actually resulted in content being listened to by the user (ie we successfully serve both data and time to the user).

From this cleaned data, we count the number of requests for each item of streamed content, and the duration of the content that was listened to.

These figures are then aggregated for each area of content (such as a particular radio show or station).

Auditing

The BBC's website figures are audited twice a year (typically March and September) by ABCe.

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