Radio drama secondary research

The conversation article on the archers: what is The Archers and who listens to it? -

Writing in the conversation (2016) Lyn Thomas writes “Still thriving after 65 years with an average
audience of just under 5m listeners.” “Attracting 9m listeners by 1953.”

This research shows how big the show is and has been since it’s realise decades ago and proves that
they must be doing something right if the still have that many listeners in 2016.

Thomas, L, 2016, the conversation available online at http://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-

the-archers-and-who-listens-to-it-57390 [accessed 10th January 2019]

The sonic society article on radio dramas: who listens to audio/radio dramas? –

Writing in Sonic Society (2014) David Farquhar says “By looking at the download demographics we
can find the answer as to what age groups are actively listening to and downloading audio theatre.”

DOWNLOADS / LISTENS BY AGE GROUP

18-24 – 27.5%

25-34 – 33.5%

35-44 –15.50%

45-54 – 12.50%

55-64 – 5.50%

65+ 5.50%

From this we can see that most people that listen to radio dramas are in the age range of 25-34.

Farquhar, D, 2014. The Sonic Society available online at http://sonicsociety.org/who-listens-to-

audioradio-drama/ [accessed 10th January 2019]

A BBC article on the archers: Radio listeners online: A case study of The Archers –

Writing for the BBC (2008) Lyn Thomas and Maria Lambrianidou writes “our sample consists of
people recruited mainly through the BBC Archers website, but also 10 people were recruited via the
Addicts website and 7 through the Facebook ‘Archers Appreciation’ group. We conducted 18
telephone interviews and received 108 completed questionnaires (with open-ended questions reg
the websites and listeners’ online engagement with The Archers). Our sample is 76% women, mainly
white British (81%) and UK residents (78%). While the largest number of respondents was in the 50-
59 age range (34%), a significant 28% were between 40 and 49, and therefore younger than the
average listener age in the RAJAR survey of the Archers audience (56). Most of them own their
houses/apartments (80%), live in cities (37%), villages (24%) or towns (18%), with either their family
or partner (36% and 37% respectively). It is interesting to mention at this point that 17% are British
people living abroad, who only have the opportunity to listen to the programme online. For them
listening to The Archers is often a means of keeping in touch with British cultural life, and it is
significant that almost 20% (a further 2% live in Ireland) of our sample live abroad. The BBC Archers
website is clearly crucial for this group.”

This has given me a huge amount of information on the demographic of the archers with lots of
detail that shows everything about the type of people that listen to it.

Thomas, L, 2008, the BBC available online at

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/knowledgeexchange/londonmet.pdf [accessed 10th January 2019]