As expected, the official audience figures for Absolute Radio have gone down, but the station remains on track, bosses say.
In London, the station's reach is up slightly, whilst the national average hours are down. Absolute is still leading the way with multi-platform listening, with 1.5 million podcast downloads, 100,000 iPhone app downloads in six weeks, and 50 per cent of listening happening via a digital platform.
"We know our listeners are listening for longer, which is a major part of Absolute Radio’s strategy. We expected the drop in reported reach, however we are just six months old and we are confident that our brand will build our audience in the long term", says Clive Dickens, Chief Operating Officer Absolute Radio.
"We continue to lead the radio industry in the digital switchover with 50 per cent of national listening via a digital platform Vs the industry average of just 20 per cent."
In related news, Absolute has appointed former creative content director Chris Goldson to be its new commercial director. He replaces Nick Hewat who is leaving to join the Telegraph Media Group.
Absolute Radio's chief executive, Donnach O'Driscoll, said Goldson, “Had been involved with the development of the Absolute brand from the very beginning, as you can imagine he has many ideas of what we need to do to further develop it commercially".