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No more late nights for RAJAR press response writers
By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 13 January 2009
Radio ratings body RAJAR has announced it will make its quarterly listening figure reports available to stations four hours earlier.
The quarterly reports are officially published on Thursdays at 7am, but radio firms get their copies the day before so they can prepare those “yes, we’re 5% down, but really that means we’re doing awfully well” press releases.
Previously the radio stations got their copies at 5.30pm on the Wednesday, but moving forward they’ll be issued at 1.30pm.
It’s thought the time shift has come about because much of the commercial radio sector is now in private hands, rather than being owned by PLC companies trading on the London Stock Exchange.
The reports were previously published as the LSE closed for the day, meaning anyone with insider access to them couldn’t do some sneaky share trading pre-empting the share price rise or fall a good or bad set of listening figures could result in (despite the figures being, ultimately, a bit made up).
With both Global Radio and Bauer Radio, the two big boys of British radio, both in private hands, that is no longer so big an issue. Unless the big ratings story surrounds UTV Radio, which is a PLC, but that’s not likely.
The next set of RAJARS is due to be published on Thursday 29 Jan, with advance copies going to the radio stations the previous lunchtime.
