Media Releases
Big Boost for RNZ Audiences On-Air and Online
Released at 12:55 pm on 30 April 2019
The first nationwide GfK radio industry survey for 2019 reflects another very strong twelve-month performance for RNZ with year-on-year growth for live listening across the two networks RNZ National and RNZ Concert. Radio results are boosted by significant growth in online audiences over the same period.*
The GfK survey results show that typically 696,600 New Zealanders or 16.0% of the 10-plus population are tuned in to RNZ radio each week - an increase of 60,000 year-on-year.
Among all radio listening in New Zealand, RNZ National has a market share of 12.1% and a cumulative audience of 616,200 listeners, an increase of 46,800 compared to the equivalent survey last year.
Results in the highly competitive Breakfast period (Monday to Friday 6am – 9am) show Morning Report increased audiences by 39,600 year-on-year, reaching 464,000 listeners. This is a station share of 15.6% of the total radio listening audience at that time of day.
RNZ Concert has also shown strong growth compared to survey 1 in 2018 with a weekly cumulative audience of 182,700 people or 4.2 % of the 10-plus population. This is an increase of 36,900 year-on-year for the network.
RNZ Head of Radio and Music, David Allan, said “It’s a very solid talk quarter, but our result is more a reflection of the strong performances by all RNZ programmes over the past twelve months. There is clearly public demand for a trusted source of quality journalism, news, information, music and entertainment."
The exciting part for RNZ National is that we are building on our success. RNZ launches First Up, our new 5am news and current affairs programme with Indira Stewart, on the 6th of May and we have Corin Dann joining Susie Ferguson and the Morning Report team on the same day.”
The multi-media broadcaster has also achieved significant growth across digital channels. More than 817,000 users now access the RNZ website during a typical week, an increase of 32% year-on-year, and there were on average over 1,581,000 monthly audio downloads from rnz.co.nz – up 26% over the equivalent period in 2018.
Collaborative partnerships with other major media organisations, including Stuff, NZME, MSN, TVNZ and Bauer, continue to extend the reach for RNZ content.
The most recent RNZ audience results are available here:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/about/audience-research
http://www.gfk.com/en-nz/insights/
*Source: GfK Radio Audience Measurement, All Radio Stations, Total New Zealand - RNZ – S1 2019 (NB Waikato S3 2017), All 10+, Mon-Sun 12mn-12mn, Cume (‘000’s) unless otherwise stated. Comparisons made are done with GfK S1 2018.
* RNZ user metrics: Google Analytics, average weekly users on RNZ website weeks 1 to 16, 2018 vs weeks 1 to 16, 2019.
RNZ audio download figures: Internal reporting, average monthly figures, January to March, 2018 vs January to March, 2019.