Off The Ball Official Thread <Mod Note - Post #1, #533, #6651>

styron wrote: »

"The JNLR survey is conducted via in-home, personal interviews, among an annual sample of c15,000 adults aged 15+ in Ireland. The survey utilises the ‘one-day-aided’ recall methodology, whereby the respondent recalls all listening activity for the day prior to interview. A scripted, paper and pen, questionnaire is used by Ipsos MRBI's team of specialist interviewers.
The JNLR survey is representative of the adult (15+) population of the country, the latest estimate of which is derived from the CSO - Quarterly National Household survey.
The JNLR delivers average daily audiences, based on a rolling 12 month database. Analysis of data is conducted at a national, regional and local franchise level and by the main demographic groups for all stations.
The sample is drawn to be representative of the population of each radio franchise area in geographic and demographic terms. Weighting factors are applied at analysis stage to re-align the national sample to known population estimates."

http://info.ipsosmrbi.com/jnlr/methodology

On that basis I suspect a large proportion of the OTB audience flies under the radar. Factor in figures for 'listen back'/podcasting at home and from emigrants abroad, and I imagine the real audience is much larger again - NT will have a better idea on the basis of download and comparative '30 cent text-in' volume. If they could only have found some way to monetise the podcasts ...

Stuck with the JNLR figures alone it doesn't look good for OTB - in an overall declining evening market it's faring badly with a Q4 decline from 50,000 to 39,000 (amazingly to me):


http://www.bizplus.ie/upload/documents/OMD_JNLR_Charts_(Jan-Dec_12).pdf


One explanation that might ring paradoxically true:

"Elsewhere, she [Oilbhe Doyle of media agency OMD] says that the late evening (7pm-9pm broadly) slot has seen significant declines, bucking the trend of most recent years. "Dave Fanning is the only show experiencing increases whilst Off the Ball must be very disappointed with a 28% fall in listenership for what in many ways is now a seminal show in the Irish radio landscape. Ironically, one wonders if the surfeit of live sport hosted in our time zone (Olympics, Special Olympics and the Euros) had a detrimental effect on the listenership of Ireland's leading sports radio show."

http://www.adworld.ie/news/read/?id=bdcc10d4-e212-4729-96b6-5bad615a3b44


If the lads weren't already up against it - bring on the format pilfering parasitic zombie that is RTE, desperate to shore up 2FM - the revamped sports show with added live commentary - to leech what audience it could.

You can see why OTB couldn't stand still in the JNLR ratings game and the guys were keen to try and straddle the much larger potential drive time audience with a mixed sports/current affairs format - if the reports are true.

Damning OTB by comparing it's audience with Hook's drive time is ridiculous - the time slots are chalk & cheese, comparing a captive audience to an elective one - eg. av. 2012 audience: (RTE1) Drivetime to Sport at 7 dropped from 266,000 to 31,000, Hook to OTB 136K to 46K.

In any event there's a strong argument to be made aside from ratings alone, that OTB can fall within a Public Service remit: if Denis O'Brien hopes to get his hands on any restructured licence fee funding this is exactly the kind of litmus test programming that has to be developed.

withless wrote: »

OTB appeals to the more intellectual sports fan. Your average 'hats/scarves/headband' yahoo would switch off after 5 mins.

Thats a good thing.

The playing field is still wide open for the boys. Hopefully they will get a chance to grow a primetime audience attracted to their style.

This country is so backward in its media tastes, a fresh voice hasn't had an opportunity. Yet.