Absolute Radio, the British radio station backed by Irish developer Paddy Shovlin, has slowed its market-share losses since it rebranded from Virgin Radio.

The station's audience is still down almost 33% on the same period last year, according to figures released by audience measurement group RAJAR, but it lost only 0.1% of its audience compared to the previous quarter. It now has an average weekly listenership reach of just under 1.7 million people.

Sholvin together with the Times of India bought the station last year from Scottish group SMG for about €62.5m at current exchange rates. As part of the deal, the station was rebranded last September and immediately faced increased competition from Xfm, which targeted the listeners who didn't stick with Absolute.

Car-racing enthusiast Shovlin made millions from the development of the former Microsoft campus in Sandyford.