Paul Jackson: Talking points from Survey #5

We’re past the midway point in 2019, with the fifth GfK metro ratings survey throwing up plenty of talking points.

As the dust was settling on another survey, Radio Today spoke with several network content directors including NOVA Entertainment group program director Paul Jackson.

There were plenty of positives for Nova, and here are five key points that were thrown up during our chat:

1. Chrissie, Sam & Browny on the up, Matt Tilley lagging

“Every book this year has been a share increase for them, and now this is their best share and a very strong cume. It’s getting close to the summit but obviously Fox is a strong competitor to Nova. Chrissie, Sam & Browny is a strong show and getting better all the time.

“We’ve got a strong station, but the Melbourne marketplace is strong and there’s four stations with over a million cume, and one nearly at a million in terms of KIIS. You have to be good because there’s no hiding places, the audience will move up and down the dial for whoever the best offering is.

“The cume has held up okay [for Matt Tilley]. It’s one of those things with TSL… where you take a break and say ‘let’s have a look at that’. We would be expecting to be putting in a better number in the Mornings, so we’ll need to reflect on that. Going into other day parts we’re going pretty well. Overall we’re happy with the performance of Nova 100.”

2. Continued dominance in Perth

“It’s a fun group of people, they’re a great group in all areas of the Nova 93.7 business. Of course, let by Nathan, Nat & Shaun’s world-class performance at Breakfast. I think this may be their highest share of all time, and even though they’ve been doing the show for 15 years they still sound so young and fresh.

“When you look across the landscape there’s been quite a few changes on other radio stations. Part of our appeal is the consistency. In terms of owning an entire 10+ market…. We’re very grateful. We’re delighted they [Nathan, Nat & Shaun] are there in Perth – they could go anywhere and succeed.

“When you go back, 96FM has been a real competitor. They’ve been spinning a lot of great records that personally, I do enjoy. Having a heritage show back in Breakfast [Botica’s Bunch] is clearly going to create a lot of talkability. For this moment in time they are the talk of the town. That doesn’t displace Nova, they’re probably more of a threat to Mix. We welcome the competition and that dynamic in the marketplace.”

3. Leading in Brisbane ahead of a resurgent 97.3FM

“This has been our best year to date in Brisbane. We’ve been consistent players in that markplace, but we’ve never won five books in a row in terms of Breakfast, outright, share and cumes… which is where we sit today.

“97.3 is back to the position it was a few years ago when Nova and 97.3 were the top two stations and we’re seeing hit go backwards a bit there as well. Much like Perth, Nova 106.9 is running its own race. However the year ends up, it’ll be one of our best ever.”

4. Jackson’s take on smooth vs Gold networks

“They’re both very good radio stations, a lot of respect for Gold. Their image in Melbourne is strong and Christian O’Connell is a top-class presenter. smooth has had the luck of the green most of the year and I don’t think we can be despondent. We can look at our cumes for smooth and its the first time we’ve gone over a million in Melbourne.

5. What next for Nova 96.9?

“7.2% highly impressive share when you break down the age group that’s listening to it as well as the cumes. Obviously Smallzy in the morning and right through. There’s about one share point overall between Nova and KIIS in Sydney, 7.2 vs 8.2… KIIS has a heritage Breakfast show so no matter how long the other shows have been on the market, they are a pretty special one-off show.

“From a Nova perspective, we’ve carved ourselves a very specific market for ourselves. Overall we dominated most of the other day parts. For Nova Sydney it’s a great book and a great year-on-year position.”