Canberra Survey results

Canberra survey 1 for 2003 has been released. Click on the Nielsen Ratings margin link to see the table of results.

FM104.7 retained top spot, but dropped 5.1 share points to 19.4%. ABC 666 was in second place, jumping 6 share points to 18.4%.

FM104.7’s losses were across all demographics except 55+, with the biggest drop occurring in evenings, which were down 16.3 share points. ABC666 picked up listeners in the 40-54 demographic, gaining in all shifts, especially breakfast and drive.

Mix 106.3 dropped 2.2 share points into third place with 17.6%, losing mostly 40-54 year old listeners. Morning dropped the most, but evenings helped keep up the station’s average, increasing 7.0 share points, the only shift to go up. Triple J was fourth with 8.7%, down 0.5 with losses in the 10-17 demographic and a drop in evenings.

2CC scored fifth place with an increase of 2.7 share points to 8.4%. 2CC’s increase came across several demographics, especially 40-54s. Breakfast and daytime shifts were all up significantly. Radio National followed with 7.6%, up 2.4 share points.

2CA dropped 0.9 share points to 5.9%, losing older listeners and dropping across all shifts, especially evenings. Classic FM dropped 3.8 share points to 5.2% and NewsRadio increased 0.3 share points to 2.3%.

Top breakfast shift in the market was ABC666 with 22.6, followed by FM104.7 on 17.7 and Mix 106.3 on 15.0. Mornings was won by FM 104.7 on 19.5, afternoons was also won by FM 104.7 with 24.0. FM104.7 had the highest cume in the market with 116,300 listeners sampling the station every week. ABC666 was next with a 102,400 cume.

The drive shift in the Canberra market was closely fought with Mix leading on 19.8, followed by FM104.7 on 19.7 and ABC666 scoring 18.3. Nights was won by ABC666 and so was weekends.

ABC666’s Program Director Andy Henley believes the station’s success is due to the good job it did during the Canberra fires and the ABC’s recent Current Affairs coverage of the war in Iraq.

“A lot of new listeners found us during the fires and seem to have stuck with us – we now have 30% of Canberrans sampling us, up from 70,000 last survey to 102,000 this survey, if we work hard we can keep them. Our bushfire coverage brought us a lot of good will. Our Current Affairs programs have all done well too – AM increased by 7 points, The World Today was also up 7 and PM increased by 12,” Henley told radioinfo.

Canberra FM Radio Program Director Geoff Fisher told radioinfo: “We’re happy with many aspects of the latest survey. Both FM104.7 and MiX 106.3 had really good TSL increases in our target demos.”

“The overall drop in 10+ share for both stations resulted from cume going to the news talk stations.Canberra is the heart of both our political system and defence forces so with current world events that’s no surprise, but I’m very confident that our stations are well placed to
win back that cume.”

“We’ve also been re-targetting key areas on both stations and some of the changes in share are a result of this.”

“I’m particularly pleased with the performance of Mark & Ali on MiX 106.3 breakfast. Their drop
in 10+ share is actually very deceiving as they’ve performed
exceptionally well in their target demo. The Mob on FM104.7 breakfast are really hitting their core audience, and the show has lots of growth yet to come with Olympic swimmer Sarah Ryan just settling in to the
team.”

“The huge growth in MiX 106.3 nights is also fantastic, Jeff
Garner has done great things with the show.”

“We’re delivering a huge number of listeners each week so we’re able to deliver excellent results for clients. In summary, all the vital signs are good for both MiX 106.3 and FM104.7.”

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