UTV: Yearly rises across board at talkSPORT

National station talkSPORT’s audience has grown 28% over the last 12 months, although the station’s reach fell slightly from the record high in Q1/11.

Hours are up 16% in a year to 20.3m and the Sony UK Station of the Year also says it saw a 32% jump in reach in London.

The station’s reach is now 3.212m, that’s up from the 2.507m a year ago but down slightly from the record high of 3.248m in Q1/11. Overall reach is now just 2,000 more than the total for GMG’s Smooth Radio. UTV tell us 47% of the talkSPORT audience (1.5m listeners) are ABC1 men, which is an all-time high for the station. Overall, men make up 83% of the audience.

That could be in part due to the arrival of Richard Keys and Andy Gray to midmornings – the slot has increased in audience size from 758,000 in Q2/10 to 887,000 in Q2/11.

Scott Taunton, talkSPORT’s Chief Executive, said: “These results are very impressive and show that our investment in talent and programming continues to pay dividends. The Barclays Premier League packages we secured early last year have helped to build our success, and these numbers show that we are able to maintain a strong male audience throughout the year as the appetite for quality speech radio continues to grow. We look forward to next month as our exclusive coverage of the IRB Rugby World Cup 2011 kicks off.”

talkSPORT’s programme director and Sony Programmer of the Year Moz Dee added: “I’m very pleased with these results as they show strong growth despite the football season ending five weeks before the quarter, and I’m proud of everyone in the programming team as they have worked hard to ensure that we deliver credible and reliable sports news journalism.”

Elsewhere within the UTV Media (GB) group, the 13 local radio stations combined posted increases both quarter on quarter and year on year. Overall reach is up 16% in a year to 1.3million, total hours are up to just short of 11m the group’s market share has hit double figures at 10%.

Liverpool’s Juice 107.6 posted its highest ever reach and hours. Wire FM’s hours are up 60% year on year and reach up by more than a quarter.

Calum Macaulay, UTV Director of Local Radio, said: “I’m delighted with progress year on year which reflects the hard work from all stations. This is proof positive that our commitment to localness in our output and our investment back into local sport appeals to our audience.”