Sydney radio ratings: Nova sees biggest change, dropping by 1.3 per cent
Nova 96.9 was the Sydney station with the biggest change to its seven day share with a 1.3% drop.
The DMG station also lost share in every time slot except evenings where it was up by just 0.1%. Nova announced last week Katie ‘Monty’ Dimond was leaving the Merrick, Dools & Monty show, moving to a weekend slot after she announced she was pregnant. It is the fifth change to the breakfast show in just over three years.
DMG group program director Paul Jackson told Mumbrella the breakfast’s show score of 5.3% is “not acceptable.”
He said Merrick and Dools return to the time slot next week and a new show producer starts in a few weeks time.
When asked whether it was the lowest Sydney share since the launch of Nova he said: “It’s not the lowest share it’s had since the debut but it’s still not acceptable.”
The Nielsen survey covering March 27 to April 30 and May 8 to June 11 saw 2GB maintaining its lead in seven day share with 15.8%, a drop of 0.4% since the last survey.
Meanwhile, DMG’s Classic Rock continued to improve with an increase of 0.7% in seven day share and a 1.3% jump during drivetime.
Jackson said: “I’m delighted its going well both in Sydney and Melbourne. We’ve got great people working very hard to provide great listening during the day time. I can totally see why its resonating with the audience.”
2Day FM’s Kyle and Jackie O breakfast show continues to dominate on FM despite being down by 1.3%. 2UE gained some ground at breakfast on AM with a 0.9% increase.
Fifi and Jules’ drivetime show on 2Day lead the charge with 12.8% share while Mix 106.5’s Ant and Becks received their strongest Sydney share this year with 6.7%.
Nova969 – Never More Than Two Listeners at a Time.
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Maybe it’s time that Nova looked at Dools instead of everyone around him? Seriously the guy is not funny at all! And i’m meant to be in Nova’s demo… I also heard this morning that Dools was earning $760,000 a year?!?!?!? Is this true? More than Merrick?
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Shocker for Nova and bad for Kyle and Jackie 0
I think people are getting sick of celebrity interviews and forced humour.
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Rosso was the concrete behind their breakfast show. Merrick has done well since though. Dools is a smooth presenter but he isnt a comedian, nor can he hold an audience. Every time he tells a story my fingers reach for the dial.
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Bring back Rosso
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it is disingenuous and misleading for jackson to say today is not the lowest figure since launch, as the only lower figure was the first survey of the stations existence for which it was only on-air for half of the survey period.
Excluding that result, and it seems reasonable to do, this is the lowest result for the station overall and for the breakfast show in history.
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Maybe Nova need to pick one music format and stick to it. Since December last year it has morphed from a dance music station to a Top 40 station.
Music stations need to make a promise and stick with it.
Nova needs to make its mind up. And quick.
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2UE and Classic Rock are the two – watch out! Mix! Ha!
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Is the current Nova969 slogan:
a) Live Life
b) Love Music
c) Fresh Hits
d) Never More Than Two Listeners at a Time
Is the current Nova969 Breakfast team:
a) Merrick, Tools and Tim Tam
b) Merrick, Rikki Wee Wee and Biscuit Head
c) Merrick, Dickbrain and F-Wit
d) Not funny
What sort of music will you hear on Nova?
a) Dance
b) Top 40
c) Alternative / Rock
d) Depends what month it is
And that is the problem with 969FM
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Nova seems to have an inability to back (or make) a decision.
Formats change, music changes. Always following the last survey, the US play charts, the ARIA charts. Doesn’t know if if wants to be Austereo, urban, dance music, Australian music, JJJ … everything, nothing.
You know you’re in trouble when you’re best on air performers have been with the station over 5 years and no new talent can generate traction (or is given the chance). No longer the challenger, under the current regime it’s more about protecting its revenue than trying to do something new. It needs an injection of courage.
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@nickatnights I don’t listen to or care about nova whatsoever but the way you blast your little trumpet at your competitor is a definite sign that you have significant insecurity at the size of the thing that hangs between your legs! It’s embarrassing
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Wow is anyone at austereo working today? Busy times on Mumbrella
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My current new slogan is:
a anyone found my lost chromosome
b my dj name is cool
c you should see the posters on my bedroom wall
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Pump up the jam. Cowabunga dudes. Radio is top shelf goodness
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To Bemused:
I do have insecurity at the size of my appendage that hangs between my legs. It’s quite small. Just like 969s ratings.
Nick.
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People keep attacking me because:
a) I have a small appendage
b) I work for Austereo
c) They work for DMG
d) The truth hurts
People keep using my name (Nickatnights) because:
a) My name is cool
b) They want to be me
c) There are more night time nicks around
d) I am not the original nick anyway.
The atmosphere at Pyrmont is;
a) Down and out
b) Sad
c) Depressed
d) Filled with volcanic ash.
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Sorry about my last relapse. Does anyone get post ratings day come down like me? The surge I get in my loins on survey day has been diagnosed as analogism. It’s being treated but occasionally relapses.
I’m off to radio rentals to stoke a radio or two. Signing off
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I usually listen to 2Day from 6am to 9am as I can never stand Novas breakfast teams. Maybe Nova should try and pich 2Days breakfast fill ins – Charlie and Page They have way more talent than any of Novas breakfast teams. But I do prefer Nova duing the day from 9am to midday. Their female announcer sounds great and they play a lot of 90’s hits which I think is a winner and will improve their ratings over time I’m sure.
As for classic rock, it will never be better than triple M as the Ms have way more variety.
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Expecting to see David Borean given the arse next. If it’s good enough for Sam Thompson to be given the boot with significantly better results, it should be good enough for David Borean to go too.
Who hires these people anyway???
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@Nickatnights
The atmosphere at Pyrmont is
d) In denial.
(Just look at DB’s comments)
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Radio is in the midst of paradigm shift. The cause of the paradigm shift is audience segmentation. Radio reaches a peak point on the circumvention curve (which has already happened) and then audience numbers flatten out as they segment to other channels. This same phenomenon has already been witnessed in the decline of newspaper readership. The aggregate audience simply will not be available to radio as it once was. Radio will not lose audience completely and as the process will take time this may cause radio to operate in a business as usual way for as long as possible. However, changes to economic dynamics of radio will be significant. These changes are already manifesting in buying behavior from ad agencies.
Advertisers are becoming increasingly concerned with measurability. Total numbers of views and (or) streams (listens) is now part of the common agency vernacular in terms of quantifying return on investment. This change in agency language relative to measurement is even a signal which radio should be acknowledging. Radio measurement as discussed above is not explicit. Radio’s measuring regime is an extrapolation and as such is problematic. The industry has a vested interest in never being measured but the engagement by the public in online and mobile streaming will mean that in order to compete radio will need to be explicitly measured and this will only serve to validate channel audience segmentation. Device audience segmentation is already a strong signal and growing as the proliferation of devices grows rapidly.
It should not be a surprise to the radio industry that automotive manufacturers are installing internet ready devices into cars as they had the very strong signal of iPods being used in cars as the precursor of these devices. These devices will also allow motorists to listen to digital versions of radio but they both give them awareness of and access to many other sources of content to which they never had access before thus almost guaranteeing further segmentation of audience.
Radio needs to find ways to maintain and grow its audience but allow it to move to new channels to which the radio, now media company, provides content and commercializes. The radio companies should be less interested in maintaining the percentage paid to record companies in order to be more focused on developing new revenue models in partnership with the record companies. These recommendations assume that the radio stations can change their own worldviews and operating practices to evolve and evolve quickly. Many different sub-operational groups within the radio industry will need to transform the way they do business and create content in order to respond to the ever quickening pace of change. The radio businesses may also look to do a scan on the future of leadership in order to find out how to structure their organizations to contend with the pace of change and number of signals identified in this analysis. It is evident that audience segmentation is occurring both at the channel level and the device level and the radio industry can only ignore these signals at its own peril.
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