News

Commercial Radio Australia reaches highest weekly audience ever of 12M

Commercial radio gained 844,000 listeners in GfK survey four to reach a cumulative weekly audience of 12 million, the highest figure ever and a 7.6% jump over the past year.

Nearly 5.8 million people listened to commercial radio via digital platforms (DAB+ and streaming), up 24% compared to last year.

“This is an outstanding result with a record number of Australians listening to commercial radio, with almost 850,000 more listeners than last year. Commercial radio growth is being driven by radio’s digital evolution with the number of people listening via digital streaming up 34% year on year and via DAB+ up by 27%,” said Commercial Radio Australia chief executive officer Ford Ennals.

“There was increased listening to commercial radio across all ages with a solid increase in younger listeners with 79% of 18-24s tuning in weekly. One in five of this age group listened to commercial DAB+ stations during the survey period, up 63% compared to a year ago.”

Overall 80% of Australians 10+ tuned into commercial radio each week across the five metros with strong growth across all parts of the day. There was a 7% lift in breakfast audiences, an 11% increase in mornings (9AM to midday), and a 12.2% surge in weekends.

In March, CRA chairman and SCA CEO Grant Blackley appointed Ford Ennals – who was at the time the CEO of Digital Radio UK – as the peak industry body’s new CEO, replacing Joan Warner who stepped down at the end of March.

Ennals has deep experience in media transformation and digitisation from his time as founding CEO of Digital UK and most recently as CEO of Digital Radio UK. Digital UK was a consortium of British commercial and public service broadcasters including the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Channel Five where Ennals was responsible for working with broadcasters and the UK Government to successfully convert UK homes to digital TV.

The fourth radio ratings surveys for 2022 were released yesterday. See Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth’s markets here.

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