Rai Radio

For RadioRai the year ended with a focus on renewal and important signs of recovery. The top management was completely revolutionised in the summer, with the appointment of Bruno Socillo to the management of the Radio Division and with the arrival of Antonio Preziosi at the head of Radio1 and the Giornale Radio, Flavio Mucciante at Radio2, Marino Sinibaldi at Radio3, Aldo Papa at the Public service channels and Riccardo Berti at Gr Parlamento.

The Board of Directors assigned the new management the task of relaunching the presence, weight and profile of public radio, giving a strong boost to technological innovation and to operating synergies with the various Company departments, especially in terms of communication and research. A tangible way of consolidating the modern approach of radio in the age of new media.

The broadcasting offering proposed the first changes in autumn, paving the way for a more widespread reformulation of programming in 2010. Audiences responded by showing the first signs of appreciation, inverting a trend which had been critical for most of the year, both with regard to ratings and the performance of the advertising market.

The general audience began to grow again, reaching 39.1 million listeners on the average day (+2% compared to 2008), with a RadioRai quota of 10.5 million listeners, equating to a penetration of 19.8%.

Radio1 strengthened its absolute national leadership and had 6.3 million listeners on the average day, a record which translates into a share of 8.9% and a growing advantage over the big commercial radio stations. Radio1 produces about 100 programmes on air during the year and its two websites, www.grr.rai.it and www.radio1.rai.it, supply 30 broadcasts which can be downloaded in podcast. The Giornale Radio news production unit, with its three programmes aired on Radio1, Radio2 and Radio3 presents 50 daily editions.

Radio2 suffered noticeably compared to 2008, reaching 3.8 million listeners on the average day. With a 5.3% share, it maintains sixth place in the classification and, despite the decline, continues to be one of the leading entertainment radio stations.

Radio3 touched a quota of 1.9 million listeners on the average day, which translates into a share of 3.2% and eighth place in the classification.

Isoradio, despite figures declining compared with 2008, had almost 1 million listeners on the average day, with a 1.2% share, remaining constantly above 4 million listeners over the week. This service has a type of offering dedicated to the general public of listeners who are travelling.

2009 was the first year of integrated surveys developed by Audiradio, thanks to a panel which supplied richer coverage figures which were helpful to commercial planning. This positive experience will be expanded in 2010 and shared by all the significant broadcasters on the market.

But naturally radio listening also includes 'expanded listening' on the web, from live streaming to mobile phone listening, the new podcasting resource, which has now become part of the lives of the more advanced audiences, which generates monthly traffic of over 1 million files downloaded from the RadiRai channel websites.