Media & Marketing Emmet OliverToday FM has decided to move the starting time of the Last Word, its main evening show, forward to 4.30 pm.
The show, which is hosted by Matt Cooper, had a listenership of 142,000 at the end of 2005, and will introduce the change from next week. The show runs from 5-7pm at present.
Afternoon presenter Philip Cawley will lose a half hour of his programme to accommodate the new start time for the Last Word. Matt Cooper told The Irish Times that commuter habits were changing and the station needed to reflect this. Many listeners were now getting into their cars at 4.30pm to beat the worst of the city traffic. Another trend was parents collecting children from school or the creche in the afternoon, said Cooper, and this meant there were thousands of drivers on the roads looking for news and current affairs from 4.30pm onward.
The evening period is becoming a key battleground for all radio stations. NewsTalk 106's Right Hook has been broadcasting at 4.30pm for several years. At the end of 2005, George Hook's show had a listenership of 35,000, the highest for the station. Competition between Hook and Cooper will intensify if NewsTalk goes quasi-national (over 90 per cent coverage) later this year.
Advertising agencies yesterday said the move by Today FM, which is owned by British media group Emap, may have been a response to falling numbers in Dublin. AFA O'Meara said this week: "Perhaps it's a pre-emptive move by Today FM in the event that Newstalk are awarded a quasi-national licence and that their evening drivetime programme the Right Hook becomes more of a threat".
AFA said the Right Hook was ahead of the Last Word in Dublin according to the most recent figures. "The latest JNLR listenership figures [ January-December 2005] show the Last Word typically reaches 27,000 adults in Dublin between the current programme transmission time of 5-7pm compared to Newstalk's Right Hook show, which typically reaches 35,000 Dublin adults during its longer transmission time of 4.30-7pm."
It will be interesting to see whether these figures change with the new start time.
RTÉ is also faced with a decision about its evening drivetime show, Five Seven Live. The intense rivalry between Hook and Cooper has arguably dented the listenership figures of Five Seven Live, particularly in Dublin.
The show is no longer in the top 10 radio programmes nationally, although with an audience of 200,000, it is not far from making the top 10.
A switch to an earlier starting time would probably help. But this would mean cutting back some of Radio One's other afternoon programmes, for example Rattle Bag or the John Creedon show.
As both of these shows are already short in duration, RTÉ might stick with its current schedule. But the starting times of its two commercial rivals may leave it with no choice.
Setanta a winner
Good sponsorship is all about luck and timing. This week's racing from Cheltenham neatly illustrated this point for Setanta, the sports media company.
Yesterday the company pulled off a great coup as they sponsored the Limerick jockey who won the Queen Mother Champion Chase. The jockey Andrew McNamara was wearing the company's colours as he romped home to win the race on Newmill.
Setanta sports director of marketing Eleanor Collier said yesterday: "It was our first time to do a sponsorship, so we chose carefully. Andrew McNamara is a great up-and-coming jockey and certainly delivered for us."
United scores €21m
There was a suggestion when the football season started last year that players' wages, transfer fees and commercial sponsorships might finally come into line with the real economy.
Well transfer fees have certainly taken a step back at most clubs (Chelsea excepted of course), but the value of commercial sponsorships shows no sign of abating.
Manchester United's reputation as a major global brand was undermined a few months ago when Vodafone decided to end its sponsorship deal with the club. But the club, which is among the wealthiest in the world, has hardly been damaged by Vodafone's decision to head for the exits.
The club is reputed to be close to signing a four-year sponsorship deal with the Gibraltar-based online gambling outfit Mansion. The deal is believed to be worth around €21 million a year to the club, which dwarfs the previous €13 million a year which Vodafone was paying.
Emmet Oliver can be contacted at eoliver@irish-times.ie
