BBC Radio Scotland loses 40K listeners in last year

BBC Radio Scotland has lost more than 90,000 listeners in three months and around 40,000 over the past year, according to the latest official audience figures. Weekly reach fell from 844,000 in the April-to-June period to 753,000 between July and September, a decline of almost 11 per cent. Over the past year, the number fell from 793,000 to 753,000, a decrease of 5 per cent. The station’s audience share also fell from 5.7 per cent a year ago to 5.3 per cent.

The official listening figures were compiled by RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research) and relate to the station as a whole rather than individual programmes. The figures come after the BBC announced a series of cost-cutting moves including the scrapping of the BBC Scotland digital TV channel. Last week, the corporation’s Scottish boss said more cuts at the BBC in Scotland are likely, with long-running programmes potentially under threat.

The BBC BBC announced a series of cost-cutting moves including the scrapping of the BBC Scotland digital TV channel Director of BBC Scotland Hayley Valentine is overseeing cutbacks but believes audience figures will bounce back Director of BBC Scotland Hayley Valentine said there were ‘probably more savings to be made’. Around ten further posts are expected to go in Scotland on top of the 60 job losses announced earlier this year. The BBC is also axeing BBC Three and Radio 4 Extra.

Earlier this month, a former Corporation journalist claimed BBC bosses had failed in their ‘duty to manage and preserve the value of a vital public asset’ with radical changes to Radio Scotland. James Shaw warned the station was being damaged by cuts, redundancies and the controversial axeing of the Good Morning Scotland (GMS) brand. GMS was launched on Hogmanay 1973 and became the longest-running and most listened-to radio show broadcast from Scotland.

Radio Scotland Breakfast is presented by Martin Geissler, Laura Maciver, Amy Irons and Fiona Stalker. On audience figures, Mr Shaw claimed the ‘listening figures for what I must now call Radio Scotland Breakfast have dropped by 37.5 per cent since the name change’. Last week, Ms Valentine said staff on the revamped breakfast show must ‘hold their nerve’ as she believed audience figures would increase. A BBC spokesman said: 'This latest RAJAR report shows that in an increasingly competitive market, BBC Radio Scotland remains the biggest Scottish station, and has seen a quarter-on-quarter rise in the average amount of time listeners spend with us. 'We're delighted that audiences continue to come to us in significant numbers for their favourite shows, from agenda-setting news and sports programmes, to entertainment shows such as Breaking the News through to our night-time music offering which includes Travelling Folk, Another Country with Ricky Ross, and Roddy Hart's Mix Tape. 'We are happy with the development of our new breakfast offering and the work being done by the team to deliver a distinctive programme for listeners across Scotland. 'We remain focused on providing audiences with the stories, conversation, and analysis that matter most to them.'