Melbourne becomes Australia’s biggest radio market as Sandilands effect sends Sydney backwards
Sydney no longer holds the crown as Australia’s biggest radio market, with one factor behind the change being the commercial reverberations of the Kyle Sandilands controversy.
The Melbourne market has overtaken Sydney for only the second time in recent years, Commercial Radio Australia data on adspend for January released this afternoon has revealed.
Last month saw ad spend in the Melbourne market rise by 6.07% on January 2011 to $13.729m.
Meanwhile the Sydney market fell by 0.15% to $13.689m.
One factor behind the change was the continuing woes of 2Day FM’s Kyle & Jackie O Show, which is Sydney’s top rating FM breakfast show.
Although the show is a relatively small part of the overall market, the value of advertising pulled from the show since Sandilands’ controversial comments late last year is significantly larger than the $40,000 dollar difference between the markets, meaning the row made the difference between Sydney losing its crown.
Campaigners against Sandilands on online platform Change.org claim that more than 30 brands have indicated they will not advertise on the show.
There were mixed results in the other metro radio markets:
- Brisbane was down 1.4% to $7.304m;
- Perth was4.4% to $6.235m;
- Adelaide was up 6.1% to $4.415m.
Overall, the national metro radio market was up on the same time last year by 1.38% to $45.372m in January.
The numbers – submitted by commercial radio stations and including both agency and direct revenue – are compiled by Deloitte.
Joan Warner, the CEO of the CRA, said: “Melbourne has had a strong January and Adelaide has continued to perform well, after recording the strongest growth out of the five metropolitan markets for 2011.”
In the first seven months of the financial year, the metro market was down by 0.14% compared to the previous 12 months, with the market worth $398m.
Warner said: “The resilience of radio as a cost effective and efficient advertising medium is a great asset during tough trading conditions,” Ms Warner said. “The industry must continue to promote the benefits of radio and its ability to deliver for advertisers in tighter economic conditions.”
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Who has the greatest number of listeners??? Any new stats on that?
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Hi Marie,
No new stats on that until February 23.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
I am sure there are other factors at play… ratings, clever promotions, product integration proposals… maybe clever-er-er radio people in Melb (maybe the clever ones moved from Sydney to Melbourne)… im sure the Sandilands thing was one factor… but lets have a look at all the other factors too
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The Sack Vile Kyle Facebook & Twitter campaign has now contacted and received notification from over 100 companies that they have removed all advertising associated with Kyle & Jackie O. Every single day we are contacting more companies and receiving replies from them that they are withdrawing advertising $’s!!!
Nathan & Nick at change have now receieved over 33,500 signatures on the petition Emily set up in November.
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I would have thought that the audience numbers would have become irrelevant. A top rating show with a massive audience but no sponsors is just not good business.
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BTW over 100 companies have pulled out of the Kyle and Jackie O show. Can provide names if need be.
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Kyle ain’t going anywhere – most advertisers book BMAD anyway so aside from sponsorships which always have inflated figures the impact will be minimal.
The next survey will be interesting, I doubt 2day will have a drop of listeners proportionate to the echo chamber.
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Kyle has third day off in under four weeks…
“It hasn’t escaped anyone’s attention, including advertisers who generally ask for a ‘please explain’ in these situations,” the source said. “And the worst thing is that Kyle doesn’t seem to give a shit.”
http://www.dailytelegraph.com......6265208271
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And of course if you advertise in the show it doesn’t mean you are a sponsor. As Chan planner said correctly if you book a BMAD schedule then you get an even rotation of spots across those timeslots.
Sydney was down by 7% in the TV market and Melbourne was down 6%…so did the Kyle incident also affect (or is it effect) the tv advertising revenue as well. Therefore Melbourne performed better
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Paul – agreed.
I think the next push needs to come from advertisers taking BMAD schedules to sign on the dotted line for ‘Rotation EXCEPT Kyle & Jackie O’. Unrealistic? Not if it’s demanded and a condition of sale.
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Just because some advertisers have pulled out of Kyle’s show, they haven’t necessarily pulled out of Sydney radio, just redistributing their investment across other day parts and stations, so I doubt that Kyle is the main factor for the decrease in Sydney radio…..
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Kyle’s biggest problems:
1. He’s honest and snobby types don’t like that.
You know who you are.
2. He’s a popular and soft target.
Wonder if people sinking the boot in would be so ‘courageous’ against someone of a different demographic (rich, white, anglo male, no decipherable political preference). Doubt it.
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@rob
You work for corporate comms at southern cross right?
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Kyle is popular and is hearing job offers. 2Day FM wants to keep him so they are throwing up a million bucks contest money. The few quarrelsome women attacking Sandilands from Facebook and Twitter ran out of fodder because Sandilands turned off the ‘nasty’. Sandilands says this handful of women are not his problem. What put a chill on advertisers is that militant bunch from RINJ with their infamous Black Bloc tactics. I recently read on the internet underground RINJ is testing the promised end to the era of “fat slag” commentary before they will stand down so maybe chain stores should YET not tear up their plans for boarding up store windows and hiring more security for protest management. Sandilands apology to the journo and for “returning in 2012 with a fresh and positive outlook on breakfast radio” seems to be upheld.
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It would appear that Sandra is suggesting that the Sack Vile Kyle campaign on Facebook and twitter (which has over 500 active members) has had no impact at all.
So far over 106 companies have withdrawn advertising from Kyle & Jackie O based on the work this group has done, polietly contacting business owners, marketing managers and customer service reps.
Sandra also seems to believe that Austereo has given Kyle $1 million to give away. This is not true. There is a contest across the Austereo networks offering the chance to win $1 million, this same contest has been held previously.
It also appears that Sandra is confirming the rumours that RINJ members have made threats of violence towards companies that continue to advertise on the Kyle and Jackie O show and will continue with these threats and other vulgar behaviours which appear to be more similar to Kyle’s threats to “hunt you down” then the peaceful campaign that other groups are running.
Personally I will continue to support the non violent, non threatening campaign that 4 Australian women are running, which has proven success, than a violent, aggressive campaign that is based in Canada.
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