The latest JNLR results indicate that almost 3.5 million adults tune into radio each weekday, underlining radio’s relevance in a changing mediascape. The annual book for 2025 shows that 78 per cent of adults listen to radio weekdays, while 90 per cent tune in weekly. Among younger audiences, 66 per cent of 15–34-year-olds listen each weekday.
Daily listening among 15–24s remains at 61 per cent, representing 421,000 young listeners tuning in each weekday. Listening to local and regional radio remains a cornerstone of Irish media, with 2.3 million adults tuning into such stations every weekday. Radio accounts for 74 per cent of total audio listening time, well ahead of streaming and podcasts.
RTÉ Radio 1 broadcasts 18 of the top 20 shows and all of the top 10
Research by Lumen Research and Dentsu for Radiocentre Ireland shows Irish radio outperforms global norms by 35 per cent on attention and memorability. Ciarán Cunningham, chief executive, Radiocentre Ireland, said it shows radio’s ability to deliver high attention at a low cost making radio a true “attention bargain” for advertisers.
RTÉ Radio 1 highlights from the latest book:
Morning Ireland – 467,000, down 4,000 over the last three months but up 1,000 year-on-year
Today with David McCullagh – 440,000 listeners
Oliver Callan – 308,000
News at One – 279,000
Liveline – 280,000; up 10,000 since Kieran Cuddihy replaced Joe Duffy
Drivetime – 218,000
Brendan O’Connor (pictured) – 429,000 (Saturday), up 71,000; 418,000 (Sunday)
Miriam O’Callaghan – 341,000, up 37,000 year-on-year
RTÉ Lyric continues to power ahead, increasing its audience share to a record high of 3.1 per cent, up from 2.6 per cent which makes it the only national station to win such growth in the past year. Marty Whelan (above) is Lyric’s biggest draw as his music miscellany is seen as a preferable wake-up call to Morning Ireland‘s serial diet of news and current affairs.
Photo at top: Today’s FM’s Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show remains the most listened to show on commercial radio. The latest JNLR study by Ipsos B&A indicates that the show increased its audience by 6,000 to 224,000. Today FM achieved a market share of nine per cent.
