5 live's bumper digital figures in detail
By James Cridland for media.info
Posted 20 May 2015, 6.00am edt
It's the day before the RAJAR figures are released, but BBC Radio 5 live has been busy: last week they released a long press release (below) about their online audience figures on the election, including their video of Joy the spitfire pilot.
Unusually for the BBC, they included some actual audience figures for listening online; and I thought it worthwhile to look into these figures to see what they are actually saying.
To start with a bit of clarity for US readers: "digital" and "online" are, in the UK, different. Digital radio is radio carried on DAB, DTV and online, and while the press release claims "bumper digital listening figures", it actually talks about online.
Live listening
On Friday morning [May 8][...] there was a peak of 136,000 requests to listen live to the station online – three times higher than the average for that slot.
A "request to listen live" is just that - an anonymous request to connect to the online stream. This doesn't mean that there are 136,000 different people listening; just that there were a total of 136,000 stream requests during the period. (I clarified that 'peak' referred to a peak of total listening requests for that slot when compared to others in the week.)
We've all experienced listening to a stream via a mobile phone and getting cut off. When you reconnect - either automatically or manually - that's normally counted as another stream request. And, naturally, when you stop listening and return to the station later, that's another stream request.
I checked with a number of other streaming stations, and discovered that in a typical 24 hour period, a station with a 48kbps stream has an average of three stream requests per listener. If you stream at 128kbps, that number doubles.
This 136,000 listening requests figure is just over a 4 hour period - but one that includes higher than normal mobile use, thus higher than normal disconnections. My guess is that 136,000 stream requests means, at best, 68,000 listeners (an average of two requests each). That is still a lot: many stations will do a fraction of that.
"That slot" is the 5 live breakfast show, which runs between 0600-1000. RAJAR's reach for that programme on a Friday morning is 1.28m. So, the online audience for this programme was an impressive 5.3% of their total audience. (To put this into context, over a whole week RAJAR claims that 15.5% of us normally listen to radio online.)
The BBC claims that this was "three times higher than the average", which points to the normal online audience being 22,600 for that programme. That's still a lot, too: though research I did a few years ago points to typical time spent listening inside a radio station app being less than three minutes.
So, the BBC are right to crow about these figures. For me, they're impressive. I'd think, though, that they might surprise many in the industry for appearing really low - online is widely held to be the most popular way of listening to the radio, even when in reality it is a tiny amount.
On-demand content
Earlier this month, 5 live secured exclusive radio broadcast rights to the much-anticipated Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao fight. Despite it taking place in the middle of the night UK time, it was the most listened to sporting event online on 5 live this year with 243,940 online requests.
Perhaps it was because the match took place in the middle of the night that the fight achieved so many online requests: because this figure includes on-demand listening as well as live.
Sport is the most popular content on the BBC iPlayer for radio; and to put that into context, the Manchester Utd vs Manchester City football game last year achieved 295,300 listen requests.
These are impressive, if not record-breaking, figures.
A video of Second World War veteran Joy Lofthouse [..] was watched by 170,000 people on the 5 live section of the BBC website. [..] The video went on to reach 2.5 million people on 5 live’s Facebook page.
I asked for clarity here. In fact, 170,000 people saw the page on the 5 live website (and may or may not have played the video); and 2.5 million saw the post on 5 live's Facebook page. The BBC don't have total play figures for the video on their own website; when I last checked, Facebook reports 403,000 plays.
Those are still impressive figures for a piece of content; but highlights the need for clear reporting. It also highlights that the radio station's own website did only 6.8% of the traffic that Facebook did; and as far as I can see, this was an organic post on Facebook and not a paid-promotion. It underlines what an incredible traffic generator Facebook is, and why we need to focus on it.
(Later - see this comment which is a really helpful definition of what a Facebook video play really is.)
A postscript
As I finished working on this piece, 5 Live contacted me again, and said:
For further clarity, these [I presume they mean the live figures I saw earlier] are the numbers that come into the BBC website – either through BBC Sport or BBC news or straight to 5 live. They don’t include additional listening that we get via the BBC Sports app, or by external platforms such as the Tune-in radio app. They give us indicators of overall audience performance.
Well. If these figures are website-specific and don't include apps, they don't include the BBC iPlayer Radio app, the Radioplayer mobile app, nor TuneIn. (I asked for clarity on this, but the BBC were unable to come back to me before press time).
The vast majority of online radio listening is still done on desktop; but if you read slide 8 of the latest BBC iPlayer performance pack it shows that in January mobile devices accounted for 36% of all listener requests.
So the figures for live listening above could be, at a minimum, 36% higher. If they aren't included. (I actually suspect they are.)
Things we can learn from all this
I'm really grateful for the BBC releasing these figures: and the regular performance packs. They show openness and transparency that the rest of the industry could learn from. I've long argued that the BBC should open up all of its research for others (after an initial period).
- RAJAR only gives us quarterly figures. Online figures could be radio's equivalent of television's "overnights" - a bellweather of how well programming is doing, and a great tool for programmers
- Online radio listening is probably much smaller than most people think. I'd caution against quoting numbers in press releases, therefore.
- It's really important that the figures are produced like-for-like: unique users vs listeners, rather than "listening requests" which could be many times out
- If you release numbers for 'online', ensure those numbers include all online platforms; and careful not to conflate "people looking at a page" with "people playing a video".
- Facebook is massive, isn't it? Wow.
Press release:
BBC Radio 5 live flying high thanks to Spitfire pilot and the election
A 92-year-old former Spitfire pilot and a fascinating end to the General Election campaign have helped BBC Radio 5 live achieve bumper digital listening figures.
A video of Second World War veteran Joy Lofthouse taking to the skies again, 70 years after she last flew a Spitfire, was watched by 170,000 people on the 5 live section of the BBC website. It was made by the 5 live Breakfast team who played it on air during the programme on Thursday May 7 – on the eve of events to mark the anniversary of VE Day. The video went on to reach 2.5 million people on 5 live’s Facebook page.
Last Thursday was also polling day for the 2015 General Election so the video of Joy provided a break from weeks of political news. But once the polls closed and the results were coming in, 5 live saw soaring digital figures again. On Friday morning, as the country woke to news the Conservatives had secured a majority in the House of Commons, there was a peak of 136,000 requests to listen live to the station online – three times higher than the average for that slot.
Jonathan Wall, controller BBC Radio 5 live, said: “Last week was pretty special for 5 live. Our story about Joy Lofthouse had a big impact on our listeners just as the country was marking the anniversary of VE Day. Then our brilliant election coverage reached its climax with the shock exit poll and the results showing a victory for David Cameron. The following morning we had a huge audience listening to us for the latest news.
“I’m enormously proud of the efforts of our teams. We produced 22 hours of live rolling coverage on Friday. In the run-up to polling day, we came live from a mosque in north London, a Glasgow tower block and a caravan park in Anglesey. We’ve been to every corner of the country hearing voters’ concerns and putting their questions to politicians. I’m really pleased we’ve seen a surge in digital listening, which suggests our audience is enjoying what they’re hearing.”
Earlier this month, 5 live secured exclusive radio broadcast rights to the much-anticipated Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao fight. Despite it taking place in the middle of the night UK time, it was the most listened to sporting event online on 5 live this year with 243,940 online requests. The station is pioneering new platforms as people choose to listen in different ways. Its short form service, In Short, now has a million hits each month.
Meanwhile, 5 live’s reporter Nick Garnett has won plaudits across the media industry for his reporting from Nepal following the massive earthquake. Nick reported live into the Breakfast programme as a teenage boy was rescued. He was able to broadcast using a smart phone.
You can watch the video of Joy in the Spitfire here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02qt65y
You can hear Nick Garnett reporting on the rescue of a teenage boy here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02q9phl