Commercial radio audience on the up in 2009
The listening audience for commercial radio saw an increase this year compared to 2008, with 8.94 million tuning in each week in metropolitan markets.
The latest figures, released by industry body Commercial Radio Australia and compiled by Nielsen, found that 146,000 more people listened to commercial radio this year compared to 2008 when 8.79 million people listened on average each week.
Breakfast remained the most listened to timeslot with 7.11 million people tuning in each week compared to 6.69 million last year.
It follows the release of the final radio ratings survey which saw Macquarie Radio Network’s 2GB maintain its lead among talk station and overall in Sydney, with Jones’ breakfast show rising 2 percentage points to 18.6 per cent, despite the presenter battling ill health during the year.
The latest Nielsen analysis also shows that more young people listened to commercial radio during the year reaching 86 per cent of people aged 10-17 years and 80 per cent of the 18-24 age group – both up compared to the previous year.
For the first time, the analysis also included the midnight to dawn timeslot and shows that 15 per cent of Australians tune in each week during this time – or 1.72 million people. Around 9 per cent of people who listen at this time are aged 10-17 years, 15 per cent are aged 18-24 years and 46 per cent are aged over 25 years.
On average, Australians spent nearly 17 hours per week listening to commercial radio during the year, or 2 hours and 24 minutes per day.
Meanwhile, the CRA recently launched ads to promote digital radio sets as the ideal Christmas present, in a bid to boost sales.
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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