Radio ratings survey 4 results have been released.
- Big breakfast change in Sydney, Kyle and Jackie new leaders.
- No covid lockdowns during the survey swings Sydney away from talk,
- Talk still strong in Melbourne, a big jump for ABC Mebourne.
- See more info below each chart
The survey was conducted by GfK for Commercial Radio Australia between Sun Apr 18 to Sat Jun 26, 2021, in a period where Melbourne was in covid lockdown for part of the survey but other cities were not.
Related reports: Trends, Cumes, Spin, DAB Stations
Previous results here.
Click the charts to pop out a full size image.
AM/FM/DAB+
- 2GB retains #1 spot in Sydney
- Ben Fordham loses Breakfast crown to Kyle and Jackie O
- KIIS106.5 now #2 overall
- 2GB, KIIS, WSFM, NOVA, TRIPLE M, 2UE, all gain in share of listeners.
- 2DayFM, smooth95.3, ABC, triple j and SEN all shed audience share
Here is our Trend Graph of Sydney breakfast shows. For more trends across all markets, see the full trends report here.
- ABC Melbourne has the biggest rise, up 2.3 share points to 11.1 overall
- Nova records the biggest fall, down 1.1 to 6.7
- 3AW retains top position, slipping 0.1 to 15.5% overall
- Breakfast: 3AW top with 20.1, ABC Melbourne second on 13.8 with a big jump, Gold third on 8.6
- Drive: 3AW top, followed by Gold then ABC Melbourne
- Demographic leaders: 10-17 Nova, 18-24 triple j, 25-39 Fox, 40-54 Gold, 55+ 3AW
- Melbourne was in covid lockdown for part of the survey
- Surprisingly, not much movement in a usually volatile market.
- NOVA remains on top.
- Biggest gain goes to 97.3FM and biggest loss (-1.0) to 4KQ
- 1.5 gain for FIVEaa, now #2 in market.
- FIVEaa and ABC, #1 and #2 in Breakfast
- MIX102.3 retain #1 spot overall with small gain
- A big gain for 6IX, up 1.9 share points to 6.1% overall
- Nova and Triple M slipped most, both down 0.8 share points overall
- Nova retains #1 position with 12.7%
DAB+ Only stations
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This is a comment on the ratings participants for Sydney only.
The current total percentage of participants is 83%. It's been 'hovering' around that figure for about six months.
Last year it was hovering around 87%.
Over 40 years ago that share was 98.5%.
This suggests that non-participating stations are increasing their share of the audience.
Observe the rating of 2UE at 3% and 2DAY at 3.3%. Definite demographic patterns on the audiences for each station. For the former, 65+ are the largest contributors while the adults 20+ to 34+ are the largest contributor for the latter.
It also says that an AM music station can rival an FM music station. In addition, without spending $$$ on 'celebrities', 2UE's running costs are less than 2DAY's running costs.
As a result would not surprise me that 2UE is more profitable than 2DAY.
Thank you,
Anthony, of I can read tables, exciting Belfield.
Yes, very good point Anthony. That is because of community radio. The community radio sector obviously holds about a 15% share between the lot of them. Most of the community stations were licenced in the 90s and early 2000s.
2DAY is not performing as it needs to be for it to be profitable. Without the financial safety net of the rest of the SCA network and the revenue it's content might provide to other stations in the group it probably wouldn't have survived. 2UE is just a low budget, low revenue, low key affair running on cruise control.
Dear David,
The 17% share of non-participants in the radio don't explain how much of the 17% share is explained by community radio.
Though the figures are over 20 years old, as a volunteer and paid weekend employee at 2SER, it was known by other surveys that 2SER had more listeners than RN! Though the information is old, it may well give you the idea that community radio taking may be taking a share of the non-participants in the ratings survey. 2SER may well be an example. It may well be that the non-participants in the ratings may comprise Hope 103.2 (2CBA) (adult contemporary/occasional Gospel), Fine Music (2MBS) and LOTE narrowcasters.
The other unknown is the listenership to podcasts and music streaming services such as Spotify, Youtube and other independent streaming services.
Moreover, another measure of the audience listenership is how many people subscribe to podcasts from radio stations. 2SM's Marcus Paul boasts that more people download his podcasts compared to other radio stations. Yet 2SM has stopped participating in the ratings 20 years ago.
In sum, the larger sum (17%) of non-participants in the ratings system may well be community radio, 2SM, LOTE narrowcasters and IP streams. In addition, these radio stations may be resorting to other research methods in listeners' habits.
Thank you,
Anthony of, exciting and analytical Belfield.