Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Current Location in Site

RNZ Home >  About Us > Audience Research

Audience Research

How does Radio New Zealand make its audience research information public?

Audience information on the networks is made available and is updated on this website. 

Radio New Zealand has a statutory requirement to report quantitative and qualitative results against designated Charter obligations.

Information relating to audience figures is made available to the public through this website, in the Radio New Zealand Annual Report (also on this website) and to Parliamentary Select Committees.

Public Value

Radio New Zealand conducts attitudinal research to measure how its services are perceived by listeners and non-listeners. Latest results show:

• Radio New Zealand is highly regarded by the vast majority of New Zealanders, including non-listeners.

• 89% agree that it is important for New Zealand to have a public service radio broadcaster (5% disagree).

• 80% agree that Radio New Zealand provides a valuable service for New Zealanders (6% disagree).

Source: Radio New Zealand Value Indices Research carried out by Nielsen Media among the general public. (Telephone survey conducted among randomly selected respondents in March 2010. Fully nationwide sample of 1003 people aged 15 years and over.)

Performance against Charter

Radio New Zealand continues to meet the expectations of listeners, presenting programmes that highlight who we are and what interests us as a nation.

Source: 2008-2009 Radio New Zealand Listener Survey, conducted by Nielsen Media.

Live radio listening and online listening

Live Listening – most recent results

Results from radio audience surveying carried out by Nielsen Media for the period April 2009 to April 2010, and are shown below. These results relate to listening in New Zealand by people aged 15 years and over, who are randomly selected nationwide.

• Weekly live cumulative audience for Radio New Zealand (National and Concert combined) is 518,000 people.
  

• Weekly live cumulative audience for Radio New Zealand National is 464,000 or 14% of the 15+ population. National's station share is 9.7%. 

• Weekly live cumulative audience for Radio New Zealand Concert is 121,000 or 4% of the 15+ population. Concert's station share is 1.4%.

Definitions: - Cumulative audience is the number of different listeners to a station over a week.  Station share is the percentage of all radio listening that is done to a station over a week.

[Source: The All New Zealand Radio Survey, for April 2009 to April 2010, among people aged 15+, Monday to Sunday, 12 midnight to 12 midnight: Nielsen Media research]

The sample size for the April 2009 to April 2010 period is 4287 people.

See FAQ (below) on how the radio surveying is conducted for Radio New Zealand, and the ways in which it differs from the commercial radio surveys.

Online Listening

While live streaming through the website is captured in the normal 40 week surveys, time-shifted listening such as audio-on-demand or podcasting is not.

Time-shifted listening therefore represents additional listening, above and beyond the live audience figures shown above. Time-shifted listening reaches new audiences for Radio New Zealand, such as New Zealanders living overseas.

• Since the launch of the current version of the Radio New Zealand website there has been huge growth in website listening.

• During the 12 month period to the end of June 2009 eight million programmes or programme segments were replayed via its website. The volume of online listening - which includes audio-on-demand and podcasting - was almost double the level recorded in the June 2008 ending year.
  

Programmes

Weekly cumulative audience figures for particular programmes on Radio New Zealand National are shown below, and relate to 'live' broadcast listening of people aged 15 years and over: 

•  Morning Report  329,000 
  
•  Nine to Noon  228,000 
•  Afternoons with Jim Mora  217,000
•  Checkpoint  191,000
•  Saturday Morning with Kim Hill  190,000
•  Sunday Morning with Chris Laidlaw  200,000

Station shares for these programmes in their time periods are shown below. For example, Morning Report, which is broadcast on Monday to Friday between 6am and 9am, has a station share of 13.5% for this time period.

•  Morning Report's station share is 13.5%  
  
•  Nine to Noon's station share is 8.7%
  
•  Afternoons with Jim Mora's station share is 6.4%
  
•  Checkpoint's station share is 9.3%
  
•  Saturday Morning with Kim Hill's station share is 13.7%
•  Sunday Morning with Chris Laidlaw's station share is 14.1%.
  

Radio New Zealand Concert's Classic Morning has a cume audience of 58,000, Upbeat has 28,000 listeners and Cadenza has 41,000 listeners.

Definitions: - 'Cumulative audience' is the number of different listeners to a programme over a week.  'Station share' is the percentage of all radio listening that is done during a particular programme time. These audience figures relate to live listening.

[Source: The All New Zealand Radio Survey, for April 2009 to April 2010, among people aged 15+,  Nielsen Media research. The sample size for this period was 4287 people.]

National's and Concert's audiences by time zones are also available.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Why does Radio New Zealand survey its New Zealand audiences?

It is important for Radio New Zealand to know how many people are listening to its networks and how well they think Radio New Zealand performs against its Charter.

Radio New Zealand is a tax-payer funded public service broadcaster established under the Radio New Zealand Act. Radio New Zealand’s Charter clearly defines the objectives to be achieved and services to be provided by the broadcaster. For example in Section 2 of the Charter the company is required to commission surveys to establish whether audiences consider that the quality and quantity of these services is being maintained.

Radio New Zealand meets its statutory obligation by conducting audience research among both its own audience and also among people who are not current listeners.

How are the radio surveys conducted?

Radio New Zealand commissions an independent research company Nielsen Media to undertake audience research on its behalf. Nielsen is known worldwide for its media measurement (including radio, TV, print, online). It currently administers the radio ratings contract in Australia on behalf of all commercial radio stations, and is also the official system in many other countries.

The radio survey it conducts for Radio New Zealand is called The All New Zealand Radio Survey because it is conducted throughout the country, including remote rural areas.

The All New Zealand Radio Survey runs for 40 weeks of the year between February and November and approximately 4000 people take part during that time. The people surveyed reflect the population distribution based on the latest Department of Statistics information.

Respondents complete a Radio Diary in which they record their radio listening in any given quarter hour over the period of a week. They are also asked demographic questions and other questions about their media habits.

In addition, after respondents have completed their radio listening diaries, Radio New Zealand National listeners and Radio New Zealand Concert listeners are asked to fill in a separate questionnaire about these stations.

Much of the resulting information appears in Radio New Zealand’s Annual Report (available in the right hand area of this page).

Is Radio New Zealand part of commercial radio surveys?

Radio New Zealand ceased to be part of the Research International commercial radio survey in 1999 because the survey did not meet all its requirements as a national broadcaster. Since then Radio New Zealand has commissioned its own audience research.Nielsen Media won the tender in 2007.

Radio New Zealand designs and creates its own qualitative and quantitative survey questions to meet the very specific statutory requirements outlined in the Radio New Zealand Charter.

The commercial radio industry continues to gather information about Radio New Zealand but excludes that audience data from published survey information.

Does Radio New Zealand know how it performs against commercial radio stations?

Yes, Radio New Zealand can measure how it performs against other radio across the country. In the same way, commercial radio stations can measure exactly how they compare with Radio New Zealand in their own markets.

What are the differences between radio industry surveys?

There are significant differences between the commercial radio surveys and the Radio New Zealand radio survey. These differences reflect the differing requirements of the two commissioning bodies.

• Commercial radio surveys are conducted twice a year. For example, this year there was a survey in February/March in three regions and there will be one later in the year in 13 regions.
• Radio New Zealand conducts a fully nationwide survey over 40 weeks of the year (February to November).
• Commercial radio stations, by their nature, are interested in markets with the greatest advertising potential. Radio New Zealand is interested in all New Zealanders regardless of where they live.
• Commercial surveys are quantitative (audience numbers only) and focus on the 3 main centres or 13 metropolitan and provincial centres. Radio New Zealand’s surveying is nationwide providing both quantitative information (number of listeners) and qualitative information (quality of service and programming).
• Commercial surveys measure audiences 10 years of age and over. Radio New Zealand measures people 15 years of age and over.
• Radio New Zealand believes its own tailored audience research better reflects the requirements of the Charter.

Important Note:

The commercial radio industry excludes Radio New Zealand audience data from published survey information because Radio New Zealand networks are non-commercial and their listeners are not considered part of the market available to potential advertisers.

There are similarities in the way the commercial radio industry and Radio New Zealand collect information. For example both use Radio Diaries based on quarter hour time segments to collect listening behaviour.