DMG's Classic Rock has continued to lose audience share despite dropping the Vega brand, according to the latest Nielsen radio survey.
Vega was scrapped in March due to sucessively low ratings, culminating in an audience share low of 3.5%. But, the latest survey results show Classic Rock's ratings have plunged to 2.7%. The biggest fall was posted in the 10-17 age bracket, where the station's audience share droppped 6.3%.
Media analyst Steve Ahern, said: "This would be very worrying for DMG. Classic Rock has seen a few surveys now, and it should be already gaining some traction. The election might have also affected the ratings of some of the talk-oriented stations."
However, DMG chief executive Cathy O'Connor told AdNews the company will continue to back the Classic Rock brand. "Obviously we are very disappointed with the Sydney result. However, we are not going to overreact to one poor survey. We will stick to the format and give the station the time it needs to develop," she said.
In Sydney, Macquarie Radio Network's conservatively aligned 2GB station gained 2.1% audience share in the breakfast timeslot, which is occupied by presenter Alan Jones. The more left wing ABC702 lost 2% audience share in the same timeslot during the federal election.
However, in Melbourne, the opposite trend occured. Fairfax Radio Network's conservative talk station 3AW lost 2.2% audience share in the breakfast slot, while the left wing ABC774 gained 0.8% audience share.
Ahern said: "This is a very confusing result, but it seems to reflect the confusion of the election. People didn't know who to vote for, and they didn't know who to listen to either.
"The other interesting market is Adelaide, where you can see ARN's music station Mix102.3 taking the lead position, while talk station 5AA fell from the top spot to third position. It's sports season, so you'd expect the talk stations to dominate, but this seems to go against the trend."
In Sydney, 2GB took the top spot with 15.2% audience share. In Melbourne, 3AW held onto the top spot with a 14.6% share, despite a loss of 0.6%. In Adelaide, Mix102.3 led the charge with 13.6%.
The Brisbane market saw B105 take the lead again, with a share of 13.3%, up from 13.1%. Finally, Perth saw Mix94.5 maintain its lead with 16.4% audience share.
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