Press Releases

BBC Radio Scotland's rich mix of quality programming pulled in more listeners in the final quarter of 2008, according to the latest report from RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research Ltd).

Weekly reach during the quarter was up to 986,000 (22.9%) from 947,000 in the previous quarter. Year on year the weekly reach also increased, by 49,000 from 937,000.

Jeff Zycinski, Head of Radio, BBC Scotland, said the figures reflected the audience's appreciation for the station's range of programming across news, sport, drama and features.

He said: "It was an incredibly busy period for news and our journalists kept the audience engaged at every turn of the banking and economic crisis.

"Our sports teams scored again with in-depth coverage across the board and all of the teams in features and news played an important role in producing exciting content for the start of the Scotland's History season.

"The high level of commitment to quality programming has continued into the New Year with our coverage of Celtic Connections and the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns."

BBC Scotland's own figures indicate that there were 233,000 hours of live streaming to Radio Scotland in quarter four 2008, up on the previous quarter's figure of 203,000 hours.

The Iain Anderson Show accrued the most hours of on-demand listening (47,000 hours) and Travelling Folk was the best performing weekly title (15,000 hours).

JG2