‘I’m not nervous’: ARN boss ‘quietly confident’ Kyle & Jackie O can win Melbourne over after lacklustre ratings survey
Kyle and Jackie O’s entry into Melbourne has made a huge splash – but it is yet to be seen in the radio ratings, with the pair holding a 5.7% audience share in the latest survey where they were on air for eight of the ten weeks. They are currently the sixth highest-rating Melbourne FM radio show, and eighth overall.
Next survey is crunch time for the pair, but ARN chief content officer Duncan Campbell isn’t worried about Kyle and Jackie O’s ability to conquer Melbourne. As he tells Mumbrella, falling in love with the controversial show “takes a little bit of time”.
Kyle and Jackie’s cume is up in Melbourne, which is good news. They’ve kept the same audience percentage as well, which I suppose could be seen as good news considering they were only there for part of the survey. They dropped into Sydney though. Are you worried about any of this?
I’m certainly not worried about Sydney. I think the Sydney numbers, I mean, they’re settling back off a very big year last year where they got to a 17 share in breakfast.
So, a 14.1 is still a pretty solid result, and it’s five points ahead of the nearest competitor there, which is WSFM. So, I’m not concerned at all about Sydney. Its average 10 plus share is sort of ahead of where we were in ’22 and ’23 was a big year.
So, we’re certainly on track in Sydney despite the settling of the numbers a little bit. And in Melbourne, I mean, that result is a positive result. It’s not a great result, but it’s a positive result in that cume’s gone up. Cume always precedes share. So, we’re sort of, I think, positioned well. In a market, it’s still in flux and there’s still a lot of churn going on in the market.
There’s been two significant changes in breakfast. All three networks have been marketing extensively. So, it’s been a noisy market as well in terms of messaging.
So, I still think the market hasn’t settled completely. It still hasn’t stabilised, so to speak. But I think we’re in a good position now to move forward in terms of share growth next survey.
No, I would agree. And you mentioned the nearest competitor in FM in Sydney is WSFM, which is also you.
Yeah, it’s always us, yeah.
So, you’re kind of competing against yourself. Jonesy and Amanda have gone well, and they seem to have a foothold there. Who do you see as the major competitors for them in terms of breakfast, if not Kyle and Jackie O?
That’s a good question, actually. Well, in terms of WS[FM], Smooth is the main competitor. We share a lot of audience with Smooth, and that’s a constant sort of tug of war there between the two stations.
So, I mean, we both sort of went down a bit this time around. And Kyle and Jackie do compete at that top end as well, because by nature of the show, they do attract some sort of 40-54s and sometimes quite healthy numbers. So, they’re the main competitors to WS.
I think the advantage WS has is, obviously the music is sort of classic hits, so to speak, very familiar. I think we need to do a better job of marketing WS. But, yeah, I mean, Jonesy and Amanda have done a great job of establishing themselves as a heritage breakfast show now, almost 20 years together. WS’s cumes have improved dramatically the last 12 months. So, we’re still sitting about 900,000 cume, which is great. So, yeah, I’m not concerned about WS. I think it’s a competitive market in Sydney, though. Smooth’s probably our main competitor.
But, all eyes are on Melbourne, or all ears are on Melbourne, so to speak. But, as you pointed out [in this survey] eight out of ten weeks was them [Kyle and Jackie]. But next survey is the first full survey, so that’ll be interesting to see what happens there.
And what’s the feeling like around the next survey? Are you quietly confident? Are you nervous?
No, I’m not nervous. I think the show’s a strong show. I think, just as I thought Christian O’Connell’s show was a strong show, you know, when it was on in London, I think we’ve proven that content can travel.
And I think that show – it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but certainly it’ll find a good foothold there once the market stabilises, and the churn starts to slow down, we can continue marketing the station for the rest of the year and attract the cumes still and convert that.
So, I’m quietly confident it’ll work.
And how soon until Christian and Kyle and Jack are going one and two in Melbourne?
That’s a good question. That’s the ambition. So, look, I mean, there’s the media bubble, I suppose, in Sydney and Melbourne and their views, what they think. I think sometimes we get caught up in that.
I think that the real heartland of Melbourne listening is in the suburbs, as it is in Sydney. And, it’s a new show for Melbourne, Kyle and Jack. So, it’s just going to take a little bit of time to bed in.
They obviously know Kyle and know Jackie O, but the show hasn’t been on – it’s been in the Hour of Power, but that’s really a cut down, heavily edited version. So they’re now getting the full show, and I still maintain it’s one of those shows that, even if you listen to it and you go, ‘Whoa, that’s a bit too much’, you find yourself still listening to it four minutes later. It’s one of those. It’s quite compelling, you know, in a funny way sometimes.
I think that’s its real strength. It’s a big show. Once you get to know the characters and the supporting team, it all makes more sense. That just takes a little bit of time. So, I’m quite confident it’s going to work.
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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