Save articles for later

Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.

ABC Melbourne has recovered slightly from previous losses in the radio ratings clash in the fourth survey of the year largely hanks to gains made in the evening and breakfast slots

The ABC’s improvement comes amid few changes in the overall rankings, which saw 3AW* remain king of the ratings battle and Gold leading the FM band.

Victorian Evenings with David Astle gained ground.Credit: Joe Armao

3AW’s overall audience fell 0.7 percentage points, bringing its audience share to 14.6 per cent. However, this figure still placed it comfortably ahead of the pack as it exceeded the runner-up station, Gold, by 3.8 percentage points. The FM leader shed 0.3 percentage points, to 10.8 per cent.

This survey – which covered April 16 to June 24 – was the second completed under the new measurement model, Radio 360. It takes into consideration modern radio listening habits (including traditional AM and FM broadcasts, the DAB+ digital platform, and streaming via devices such as phones and internet-enabled smart speakers), based on regular survey results and information from a 2,000-person panel of respondents wearing a meter-watch.

An average of 518,000 people listened to radio during this survey period, up from the previous average audience of 515,000 people.

ABC Melbourne’s performance has fluctuated since the beginning of the year. The broadcaster managed to retrieve some of its listeners after its record-low in the first survey of the year, only to fall again in the third survey. However, it received the second-biggest jump in average listeners across all stations over this survey period – increasing by 0.9 percentage points to an average share of 6.9 per cent.

Other than mornings and drive, all the ABC Melbourne timeslots enjoyed a boost. Its evening slot (7pm to midnight), which includes Victorian Evenings with David Astle and Nightlife with Philip Clark, gained the most ground with a 4.5 percentage point increase . Breakfast (5.30am to 9am) – which is now helmed by comedians Sammy J from Monday to Thursday and Charlie Pickering on Friday – also continued its upward trajectory from the previous survey, gaining 1.7 percentage points. This comes as the ABC is undertaking a review of all capital city and regional stations.

Notably, its morning and drive slots were the only ones to record a decrease in average share – a continuation of the downward trend witnessed across these timeslots in the previous survey. The average share of listeners for both the morning (9am to midday) and drive (4pm to 7pm) slots fell by 0.1 percentage points. These losses come despite Virginia Trioli (mornings) and Rafael Epstein (drive) having been back in their seats for over two months.

However, one survey result does not necessarily indicate a trend, and the drop in both slots was relatively negligible. Further, survey timeslots do not always correlate precisely with program timeslots.

Though 3AW has maintained its dominance since the beginning of the year, its average share of listeners decreased across every timeslot except drive during this survey period. The station’s drive slot – which includes Drive with Tom Elliott – jumped by 0.3 percentage points to 11.4 per cent.

The largest increase across the board was enjoyed by Nova, which claimed an average of 8.5 per cent of listeners – an increase of 1.2 percentage points since the previous survey. This pushed Nova ahead of KIIS. KIIS is now sixth in the rankings, pulling in an average of 7.5 per cent of listeners (up from 7.3 per cent).

Nova Entertainment’s chief executive Peter Charlton said of the results:“This has been a fantastic set of results and a reflection of the huge amount of effort that everyone across Nova Entertainment puts in every day”.

*3AW is owned by Nine, the publisher of this masthead.

Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.

Most Viewed in Culture

From our partners

Source: Read Full Article