IRS 2009 R2: Big FM sees growth in Guwahati, Hyderabad and Thiruvananthapuram

The recent IRS R2 2009 Radio data, is released by the MRUC and researched by Hansa Research, sees Radio Mirchi topping the charts. When it comes to different towns and cities in the country, there is always a favourite channel. Exchange4media takes a look at the listnership at five major cities – Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Kochi, Lucknow and Pune.

In Ahmedabad, Radio Mirchi is the clear No. 1 with a massive lead over No. 2 player Vividh Bharati. However, Radio Mirchi has seen a decline of 4.09 per cent. On the other hand, Vividh Bharti has grown by 5.34 per cent. My FM occupies the No. 3 position, but has seen a steep decline of 14.29 per cent. Radio City is at No. 4 with a 2.94 per cent decline, while Radio One is at fifth position with a substantial growth of 17.07 per cent.

In Bhopal, four of the top five stations have seen a decline in listenership. Vividh Bharati tops the list, but has seen a steep decline of 22.47 per cent. Radio MIrchi and Big FM are placed second and third, respectively, and both of which have seen a decline of 4.24 per cent and 4.35 per cent, respectively. My FM is placed No. 4 and has seen drop of 12 per cent. AIR FM Gold is the only station among the top five to have witnessed a growth of 3.85 per cent and is place fifth.

Kochi is picking up on listenership numbers and that too rapidly. The three stations that have recorded growth from the last round, have seen massive growths. Radio Mango, which is at No. 1 in this city has recorded a growth of 127.27 per cent. Club FM, too, has seen a huge growth of 157. 69 per cent and is placed second. AIR FM is the only FM player among the top five to have recorded a decline of 23.95 per cent. Red FM, which has not recorded listenership in Kochi in the last Round, has now recorded a listenership of 94,000 in R2. Vividh Bharati has recorded a growth of 133.33 per cent.

In Lucknow, three of the top five stations have seen declines in listenership. Radio City, which is at No. 1, has seen a minor decline of 1.23 per cent, while Radio Mirchi at No. 3 has recorded a 1.49 per cent decline. Vividh Bharati is placed fifth position and has seen a 12.40 per cent decline. On the other hand, AIR FM Rainbow, which is at No. 2, is the only FM player to have seen a growth in listnership among the top five stations in Lucknow. It has grown by 5.27 per cent. Like in the Kochi market, in Lucknow too Red FM had not recorded listenership in the previous round, but has recorded a listenership of 291,000 in R2 and is placed fourth.

Radio Mirchi tops the charts in Pune, but has seen a marginal decline of 1.35 per cent. Even with the decline, it is leading with a massive margin, leaving No. 2 player Vividh Bharati far behind. Vividh Bharati has seen a decline of 8.70 per cent. Radio City is placed third and has recorded a growth of 66.15 per cent, while AIR FM at No. 4 has recorded the highest growth among the top five stations in Pune at 125.58 per cent. Red FM has also seen a rise and is at fifth position with a growth of 50 per cent.

According to the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) 2009 Round 2 data (Radio Stations- last one week) for the radio industry, Radio Mirchi is the clear leader in both Mumbai and Delhi markets with massive lead over its competition. A distant second in both these markets is Radio City, followed by Red FM. What is interesting to note is that listenership in both Mumbai and Delhi markets has seen a decline in R2 as compared to Round 1. The only FM station to have seen growth in Mumbai is Fever FM, while in Delhi, AIR FM Gold is the only FM station to have witnessed a marginal growth.

The top three FM stations in both Mumbai and Delhi are Radio Mirchi, Radio City and Red FM in that order. Although Radio Mirchi enjoys a massive lead in both the markets, the FM station has witnessed a decline of 4.02 per cent from 3,480,000 in R1 to 3,340,000 in R2 in the Mumbai market. In Delhi, Radio Mirchi has seen a decline of 3.53 per cent from 3,728,000 in R1 to 3,601,000 in R2.

Ranked second in both markets is Radio City. In Mumbai, the FM player has seen a 9.59 per cent decline in listenership at 2,479,000 in R2 from 2,742,000 in R1, while in Delhi, Radio City fell from 2,798,000 in R1 to 2,629,000 in R2, a decline of 6.43 per cent.

No. 3 player Red FM, too, has seen a decline in listenership in both Mumbai and Delhi markets. In Mumbai, the decline is from 2,173,000 in R1 to 1,983,000 in R2, down 8.74 per cent, while in Delhi, Red FM has seen a decline of -10.02 per cent in its listenership, from 2,098,000 in R1 to 1,907,000 in R2.

Mumbai

When it comes to the Mumbai market, the only FM station to have witnessed any growth in its listenership here is Fever FM, up 3.53 per cent at 675,000 in R2 from 652,000 in R1. Fever FM is ranked sixth in Mumbai. Ranked fourth is Big FM with a listenership of 1,679,000 in R2 as compared to 1,858,000 listeners in R1, a decline of 9.63 per cent.

At No. 5 is Radio One, which has dropped 6.92 per cent from 1,546,000 in R1 to 1,439,000 in R2. The other two FM stations in Mumbai include Government-owned FM stations AIR FM Gold and AIR FM Rainbow, both of whom have shown double-digit declines at 24.89 per cent and 22.99 per cent, respectively. While AIR FM Gold has gone down from 888,000 in R1 to 667,000 in R2, AIR FM Rainbow has seen a decline from 635,000 in R1 to 489,000 in R2. Meow FM, too, has seen a 2.56 per cent decline in listnership at 457,000 in R2 from 469,000 in R1.

Delhi

In Delhi, AIR FM Gold, which ranks fourth, is the only FM station to have witnessed any growth in listenership. The FM player has seen a marginal growth of 0.96 per cent from 1,544,000 in R1 to 1,559,000 in R2. Big FM, which is ranked sixth has seen a 8.76 per cent drop from 1,614,000 in R1 to 1,484,000 in R2.

Fever FM, which has seen a growth in the Mumbai market, has registered a double digit decline of 15.31 per cent in Delhi, from 1,205,000 in R1 to 1,045,000 in R2. Radio One, too, has declined from 935,000 in R1 to 846,000 in R2, a drop of 10.52 per cent. Meow FM is down 8.42 per cent at 713,000 in R2 from 773,000 in R1. AIR FM Rainbow has declined 4.18 per cent to 670,000 in R2 from 698,000 in R1, while Hitz FM has seen a drop of 13.93 per cent to 560,000 in R2 from 638,000 in R1.

The Indian Readership Survey (IRS) 2009 Round 2 data on the radio industry, released by the Media Research Users’ Council (MRUC) on January 8, 2010, once again shows Radio Mirchi as the lead FM radio station across India.

However, compared to the IRS 2009 R1 data (Radio stations - last one week), the listenership of the FM station has seen a decline of 2.36 per cent from 41,416,000 in R1 2009 to 40,438,000 listeners in this round.

What is interesting to note is that unlike in R1 2009, wherein almost all the Top 10 FM stations had witnessed growth, this time round only two of the Top 10 FM stations have witnessed growth in listenership, while others have witnessed a marginal decline.

Radio Mirchi, Big FM, Red FM, Radio City, AIR FM Rainbow, Suryan FM, AIR FM Gold, Radio Mantra, Radio One and My FM comprise the top 10 FM stations in the all India market. Red FM has registered the highest growth in listenership in R2 with a 24.15 per cent increase from 14,993,000 in R1 2009 to 18,614,000 in R2.

Ranked second is Big FM with a listenership of 20,380,000 in R2 as compared to 20,381,000 in R1 2009, thus making for no significant gains in its listenership. Ranked third is AIR FM Rainbow, which has seen a marginal 3.88 per cent decline in listenership from 22,153,000 in R1 2009 to 21,293,000 in R2 2009.

Radio City, which is ranked fifth, too, has witnessed a decline of 3.96 per cent in its listenership from 14,656,000 in R1 to 14,076,000 in R2.

Radio Mantra is the other FM station that has witnessed an increase in listenership in R2 2009 at 4,227,000 from 3,822,000 in R1 2009, an increase of 10.60 per cent.

Suryan FM, on the other hand, has seen a decline of 3.99 per cent in its listenership from 13,343,000 in R1 to 12,810,000 in R2 2009. Radio One has registered a listenership of 3,683,000 in R2 from 3,910,000 in R1, while My FM saw its listenership drop to 3,669,000 in R2 2009 from 3,937,000 in R1 2009.