Sydney radio ratings: Early breakthrough for Mix FM breakfast show
Mix FM’s new Sydney breakfast show of Claire Hooper and Andrew Rochford has delivered early results for the Australian Radio Network with listeners appearing to have moved across from DMG’s Nova.
Share of Mix’s Sydney breakfast audience rose from 2.7% to 4.6%, according to today’s first survey of the year from Nielsen. It was the biggest rise in the market.
Meanwhile, Nova’s Sydney breakfast show – Merrick, Dools & Monty – fell from 7.5% to 6%, the biggest drop.
2Day FM’s Kyle & Jackie O breakfast show remains the number one FM offering, with a slight rise to 11.3%.
In overall station share, 2Day FM was also number one in FM with a slightly increased 10.4% share.
DMG’s Classic Rock has mixed results in Sydney. Its overall share was down from 3.3% to 3%. But in what it describes as key advertising battleground of 40-54, it overtook Austereo’s Triple M, with share rising from 4.5% to 5.3% while Triple M dropped from 7.1% to 4.8%.
DMG’s Sydney boss David Borean told Mumbrella that although Nova’s share performance wa s a slight disappointment, increased cumulative audiences had been encouraging and the number of female listeners had increased significantly.
He also pointed out that Nova’s marketing campaign had kicked off at the end of the survey period. He said: “We would hope that the marketing will have some impact by the time of the next survey.”
Austereo CEO Guy Dobson was sceptical about Classic Rock being able to claim victory over Triple M in the 40-54 demo. He told Mumbrella: “If I was DMG I wouldn’t be claiming victories. That station’s not long for this world – it’s a sinking ship. We’re after any male 25 plus.”
Another disappointment for Nova in Sydney was the drop in audience for its new national Fitzy & Wippa drivetime show. Share fell from 9.8% to 7.3%.
Menawhile, the daily absence of Hamish & Andy barely hurt 2Day FM in Sydney, with drivetime share only dropping from 13.2% to 12.4% for the Monday to Thursday Fifi Box and Jules Lund show, with Hamish & Andy on Fridays.
Across the board, talk station 2GB had the biggest rise in share, up from 13.3% to 15.1%. Rival 2UE was down slightly from 6.2% to 6.0% although the network had not put its new lineup in place.
Monday-Sunday daytime share – Sydney:
- 2CH 5.5% -0.5
- 2GB 15.1% +1.8
- 2UE 6.0% -0.2
- 2DAY 10.4% +0.3
- MIX106.5 5.2% +1.3
- 2MMM 4.7% -0.6
- NOVA96.9 6.3% -1.6
- Classic Rock 95.3 3.0% -0.3
- WSFM 6.9% 0.0
- ABC702 10.6% +0.4
- 2RN 2.3% -0.4
- NEWSR 2.4% +0.2
- 2JJJ 4.6% +0.5
- ABCFM 3.4% +0.3
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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Nova has been failing to gain much traction in Sydney for a while now. Merrick and Rossos last breakfast show rating at the end of 2009 was a strong 10.5%. They were a strong brand. Now the new team of Merrick, Tool and Bindy is just noise (and plenty of fake laughs).
Nova persistence in playing edgier dance and hip hop is a turn off factor. It is good for choice but every time they playthe more “alternate” music people are pressing their station select buttons. It is never going to compete with 2Day until they tighten up the playlist.
Good on Mix – back to the soft rock option. This is what DMG should have done with 953 a year ago when there was a gap in the market. Instead they ran with the old rock songs format and it looks like the station will lie at the bottom of the FM ratings for its sixth year straight.
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LOL – since when has 40-54 been a key advertising battleground?
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Nova have made a number of mistakes to lose listeners, for me the big one was ditching their never more than 2 ads in a row promise… their strongest POD from day 1 and the only reason worth keeping it on their station
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Biggest mistake is sticking with the old guard for too long. Things started to shake-up with a new Digital Director, Sales Director, CFO and Marketing Director, but the people that actually do the work are disappearing. More Chiefs, less Indians. With the recent appointment of a Publicity Director, it least they’ll be able to put positive spin on it more rapidly though.
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Re: Mix – No one in the ‘Media world’ really takes much notice of this first survey result. Let’s see in 6 months whether it’s still moving forward. My gut says No! It seems like an unhappy ship!
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…and so the cannibalism continues…commercial radio needs to unite and find a way to make itself relevant and fun, like the old days of uncle Doug!! They’d give themselves a chance of growing audience by being less ‘me too’…Dobson’s comment made me laugh hard…DMG/Austereo are just estranged family members who’ll never get over the defections to DMG…c’mon kids let’s get together around a table and see if we can make some fun stuff to listen too!!
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Old School sums it up – Uncle Doug, Ian Mcrae and Rick Melbourne – all successful solo brakkie hosts. Remeber the days when a music station could have just one host for breakfast? Much easier to brand than today’s duos and trios that can just become noise.
Uncle Doug on Triple M – he would say something funny (remember Madam Zelda) and the audience sould laugh.
Breakfast shows in 2011- one host says something remotely amusing and the other host(s) literally piss themselves with (fake forced) laughter.
Boring.
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The reason MIX 106.5 Andrew and Claire Brighter Side OFD Breakfast have a slight increase is because at the moment they have a house and land package competition running but after that I reckon they’ll collapse and out by the years end.
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With you on that Phillip. I can normally endure a lot on the radio, even listen to 103.2 at times. But this new Mix duo is boring as bat sh!t. Great TV personalities, but man on radio it’s painful. There’s only so many $500K houses to give away…
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Hi Philip,
The house promotion was launched around Jan 24: https://mumbrella.com.au/mix-106-5-gives-away-house-to-promote-new-breakfast-show-38584
The first ratings period covered Jan 16 to Feb 12, so the promo covered three weeks out of the four week ratings period.
Period 2 is Jan 30-March 19. With the winner announced a few minutes ago, that will mean it will have run for four of the seven weeks of period 2. So if numbers are up again, we’ll have the first indication the result is about more than just the promo (and vice versa of course).
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
It’s funny listening to the old radio heads wax lyrical about the good old days. Times have shifted guys – you need to get with the program. DMG looked like they were on the right path, but recent departures suggest they got cold feet. Austereo are investing heavily in new media now in reaction – wonder if they’ll learn, or whether the takeover will put them in a holding pattern too.
Radio is on a downward spiral now, and while all the sales people talk about increasing audiences, they’re not growing anywhere near the population growth, and certainly nowhere near as fast as the new media market place.
Bring on the newschool in the new media.
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I’ll be more interested to see if 2UE can turn things around with their new line up.
Personally, I like their new format, but they are in for a tough battle.
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