Southern Cross Austereo's (SCA) top-rating Sydney station 2DayFM has been overtaken for the first time in years by Australian Radio Network's (ARN) WSFM. SCA's Triple M, however, continued to gain ground with steady increases nationally.
The new commercial radio ratings come from Nielsen and survey the major stations in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide. The data is from 20 Jan - 30 March 2013.
Triple M built on its prior success with rises in all key markets. Adelaide saw the most impressive increase with taking a further 1.1% of the market. It now has a total audience share of 9.6%, followed by Sydney and Melbourne where it gained another 0.7% of the market, taking it to 6.4% and 7.6% of the share in the respective metro areas. It increased slightly in Brisbane to a share of 9.9%.
SCA chief content officer Guy Dobson told AdNews he was "incredibly happy" with Triple M's results. The station had seen a "resurgence" after it was skewed to a slightly younger audience, bringing "exceptional results", he said.
SCA did not dwell on Sydney's 2DayFM being overtaken by WSFM for the first time in six years. He said it was "sure to improve". WSFM's victory was not generated by increases in the station's share itself, but rather decreases in 2DayFM's share as listeners migrated to other stations. WSFM shrunk by 0.9% to 8,4%, meaning WSFM's 8.5% elevated it to the top spot.
It was Macquarie Radio Network's (MRN) 2GB which gained the most ground in Sydney with a 1.2% boost. Its now holds the most share in Sydney with 13.2%. Others to perform well in Sydney included Nova with an increase of 0.3% and ABCFM with 0.5%. ABC's702 plummeted more than any other station in the area, losing 1.5% of the total market.
In Melbourne, the biggest winners were ARN's Gold which added 1.7% and ABCFM with 0.9% of the total market to their stations. They now hold shares of 8.7% and 4% respectively. Stations to decrease the most were 3AW losing 1.1% market share and ABC774 with 0.9%. 3AW however managed to maintain pole position at 12.6% share.
Brisbane's B105 - the equivalent of Sydney's 2Day FM - gobbled up 1.8% of the total to a share of 11.6%. This growth was unmatched by any other stations in the area, with the next highest being 4BC with a 0.6% increase to 6.8% share. ARN's 97.3FM decreased by the most, shedding 1.4% of the market, but managed to retain the highest share with 12%.
The best-performing station in Adelaide was SCA's 5MMM with a jump of 1.1% to a total of 9.6%. Comparatively, ARN's Mix102.3 lost shed 2% of the total market, taking its share 14.8%. Despite the tumble it had enough headroom to remain in top spot.
Meanwhile, the biggest increase in Perth was seen by 61X, which took 1.2% of the market. This was juxtaposed to the 1.1% losses of 92.9 and 96FM. 96FM was overtaken by Nova 93.7 which moved into second place. Mix94.5 retained top spot despite dropping 0.5%.
In terms of ad revenue, the Perth market has been a consistent strong performer. Recent March figures show it increased 5.84%.
Another area of interest was DMG's
SmoothFM, which saw very different results in its two operating
markets, Sydney and Melbourne. It rose by 0.8% in Melbourne but
shrunk but 0.6% in Sydney.
DMG's group program director Paul
Jackson smoothed over the Sydney fall. He claimed he was "delighted" at the station's
"brilliant" results. "It has performed very well since
day one," he said, before claiming that "we have blue chip brands [...]
knocking down the door to get on the station". SmoothFM, formerly known as Vega, was
launched in May last year in an attempt to tap into the easy
listening format.
Meanwhile, ARN's national content
director Duncan Campbell said it was a "strong day" for the
network and was the first time in history it had been the number one
in three markets, being Sydney's WSFM, Adelaide's Mix102.3 and
Brisbane's 97.3FM. He said the results highlighted the "competitive
nature of commercial radio".
View the full charts here.
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