Commercial radio continues to break audience records

GfK Survey 7 revealed 12.14 million people listened to commercial radio each week, beating the all-time high of 12.1 million recorded in GfK Survey 6 released at the end of September.

Commercial Radio & Audio (CRA) says this was the eighth consecutive rise in cumulative audience growth.

The number listening in the car rose 17%, year on year to 9.69 million with the share of listening in the car up 8 percentage points. Almost one third of listening to commercial radio is done in the car (33%), with listeners listening 5 hours 22 minutes per week~.

The number of Australians aged 10+ tuning into commercial radio at work soared 49% to more than 2.47 million people each week across the five major metro markets.

“We’re delighted that commercial radio is continuing to break audience records and the latest survey suggests 965,000 more people are listening to commercial stations each week compared to last year during Covid,” says Commercial Radio & Audio chief executive officer Ford Ennals.

“There’s arguably never been a stronger line-up of radio talent in the country, as recognised at the ACRAs. This gives listeners plenty of options to connect with personalities and voices that they relate to.”

Commercial radio weekend audiences increased 1.3 million, up 15% to a total of 9.8 million compared to a year ago, according to the latest GfK radio ratings.

The number of commercial radio listeners at breakfast time also recorded impressive growth, reaching nearly 8.5 million Australians aged 10+. This is an increase of almost 1.5 million or 21% from the same time last year.

And commercial breakfast DAB+ audiences have more than doubled over the last year, to over 1 million*.

Commercial DAB+ stations again performed strongly with almost 2.8 million weekly listeners, up 28%*. Commercial radio listeners via live streaming also increased almost 26% to over 3.6 million#.

Mr Ennals says the survey suggests that listeners are choosing to listen across a variety of stations and widening their favourite stations to include DAB+ stations. The survey results also show that listeners are accessing their favourite stations through multiple platforms as we have seen continued growth in online listening.

“This is a move from traditional radio listening that tended to circulate around people having only one or two favourite stations that they would listen to throughout the day. Consumers seem to now be more likely to have a favourite breakfast show, several stations for music and a favourite drive show.”

CRA says young audiences are another great story from the research, with the survey demonstrating strong growth in this market. Commercial radio reached 83%^ of Australians 18-24, up 201,000 listeners compared to a year ago.

Source: GfK Radio Ratings, SMBAP S7 2022 compared with S7 2021, Commercial Stations (Simulcast & DAB+), Cume (000), Mon-Sun 12mn-12mn, Breakfast Mon-Fri

0530-0900, Drive Mon-Fri 1600-1900, Weekend Sat-Sun 0530-12mn, All People I0+ (unless otherwise stated); ^Cume (%), ~Time spent listening (h:mm),

*Commercial DAB+ Stations via DAB+ device, streaming or other; #streaming listening includes mobile phone, smart speaker and PC/tablet.