Metro Radio Ratings: Survey 1, 2020

SEN thriving with no sports competition by going… backwards. Never strong in the AFL off-season, but a 1.6% share is just dire. The House of Hutch was built with a deck of cards and is swaying in the wind.

SCA should be concerned. Triple M is competitive in a single market - Brisbane; tanking in Sydney (behind 2DayFM!), outrated by Triple J in Melbourne and Adelaide, and dropping 3.5% in parochial Perth. Fox and Hit105 are the only stations keeping the Hit brand afloat.

Paul is about to lose his grip on Perth, and Ben & Liam dropping in their first book. Still, a promising 10+ share; Duncan will be nervous about Adelaide, but 10.6% for Cruise is phenomenal and 96FM is surging.

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Shares 10+
Sydney
@TV-Expert got there first (link)

Melbourne
#1 3AW - 13.3 ▼2.3
#2 Gold 104.3 - 10.8 ▼0.2
#3 Smooth 91.5 - 9.6 ▲1.1
#4 ABC Radio Melbourne - 8.7 ▼0.6
#5 The Fox - 8.4 ▲1.1
#6 Nova 100 - 8.3 ▲1.1
#7 Triple J - 6.6 ▲1.6
#8 KIIS 1011 - 6.4 ▲0.7
#9 Triple M - 5.5 ▼1.3
#10 ABC RN - 3.4 ▲0.4
#11 ABC Classic - 2.7 ▲0.2
#12 SEN - 1.6 ▼2.0
#13 ABC NewsRadio - 1.4 ▼0.5

Brisbane
#1 Triple M - 11.3 ▲0.4
#2 Nova 106.9 - 11.1 ▲0.7
#3 97.3FM - 10.9 ▼1.6
#4 Hit105 - 10.8 ▲0.1
#5 Triple J - 9.2 ▼1.4
#6 4KQ - 8.3 ▲0.1
#7 ABC Radio Brisbane - 7.2 ▲0.8
#8 4BC - 6.7 ▲0.4
#9 ABC RN - 3.3 ▲0.8
#10 ABC Classic - 2.7 ▲0.1
#11 ABC NewsRadio - 1.2 ▼0.1

Adelaide
#1 Mix 102.3 - 12.6 ▼1.0
#2 Nova 919 - 11.0
#3 Cruise 1323 - 10.6 ▲1.0
#4 ABC Radio Adelaide - 10.2 ▲1.2
#5 Hit107 - 8.9 ▼0.4
#6 FiveAA - 8.1 ▼2.8
#7 Triple J - 7.9 ▲2.0
#8 Triple M - 7.2 ▼1.4
#9 ABC RN - 3.2 ▲1.1
#10 ABC Classic - 3.1 ▲0.2
#11 ABC NewsRadio - 1.5 ▲0.1

Perth
#1 Nova 937 - 14.0 ▲1.4
#2 96FM - 13.6 ▲1.6
#3 Mix 94.5 - 10.1 ▼3.5
#4 Triple J - 9.8 ▲1.1
#5 Hit92.9 - 9.3 ▼1.3
#6 ABC Radio Perth - 6.9 ▲1.8
#7 6PR - 6.3 ▼0.6
#8 6IX - 4.6 ▼0.3
#9 ABC Classic - 3.2 ▲0.9
#10 ABC RN - 1.6 ▼0.2
#11 ABC NewsRadio - 0.9

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I know it is only survey one, but 97.3 perhaps have not got the impact they were hoping for at Breakfast, Triple M also not damaged by the loss of Robin Bailey.

Also not a big impact across drive with the change from Kate to Ed on Hit, even an improvement in Melbourne.

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No Hit ?

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Fixed.

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Sydney

#1 2GB - 13.2 ▲ 1.2
#2 ABC Radio Sydney - 8.9
#3 WSFM - 8.4 ▲ 0.9
=#4 Smooth 95.3 - 8.1 ▼ 1.2
=#4 KIIS 1065 - 8.1 ▼ 0.7
#6 Nova 96.9 - 7.7 ▲ 0.5
#7 Triple J - 6.9 ▲ 0.9
#8 2DayFM - 5.3 ▲ 1.2
#9 Triple M - 4.9 ▼ 0.3
=#10 2CH - 3.5 ▼ 0.8
=#10 ABC Classic - 3.5 ▲ 0.4
#12 ABC RN - 2.9 ▼ 0.5
#13 ABC NewsRadio - 2.0 ▼ 1.0
#14 Sky Sports Radio - 0.7

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At a glance it appears there’s a fair deal of contraction in the markets.

Adelaide has four stations above 10% in the 10+ share - including two on the AM band! Likewise, there are a further four stations between 7 and 9%. This phenomenon has been present in Brisbane for some time with just 0.5% separating first ranked Triple M and fourth ranked Hit105.

Melbourne is an odd one - all four younger skewing stations rose, with Triple J leapfrogging KIIS in the process. Nova and Fox appear to be very much in sync, but no one is touching Gold or Smooth (and naturally 3AW, but that goes without saying at this point)

As always if you’re new to these shores, 10+ shares do not tell the full story - especially in survey 1 - but there are some concerns there. @FreelanceEP mentioned 97.3 not setting Brisbane on fire at breakfast, and neither have Ben & Liam on Nova Adelaide, but in a contracting market every percent counts. Well not to Stav anyway.

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Considering the station aired Aus Open, BBL, AFLW & AFL pre-season matches during the survey period, there’s no excuses for such a fall.

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Yes but Radiotoday say it’s only this survey because they changed formats midway through. They’ll be back next survey.

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It’s interesting to see the 40-54 ratings in Sydney, where Smooth fell 3.6% to 7.2%, beaten by all the CHR stations. WS is #1 in that demo with 12.8%. Both 2Day & Smooth position themselves as “Feel Good” in the Sydney market.

Meanwhile, in Melbourne, Smooth performs a bit better in the same demo, only beaten by Gold (who dominates the demo with 15.9%), 3AW & sister station Nova.

JJJ is #1 in the 18-24s in Sydney, Melbourne & Perth.

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2Day has made quite a recovery this survey. ▲ 1.2 Now ahead of 2MMM.

Smooth is down by the same amount. ▼ 1.2 Is 2Day taking listeners away from Smooth? Might make sense for them to target those Smooth listeners more.

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So 2day is beating 2MMM? Yikes.

Triple M is a debacle except for Brisbane. Everyone knows my thoughts on this. Focus on the music and ditch the talkback. They should be doing a bit of what 96fm is doing.

97.3 ugh. It should be doing so much better. Smoothify or Goldify 97.3 - but do something because currently it’s just sooo lame and absolutely horrid to listen to.

Cruise is a phenomenal success and KQ is going well too.

But really something must surely be done with Triple M.

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Why did 9 Radio withdraw from the Survey?

Are they wanting to divest 2UE, 4BC, Magic 1278… and think ratings figures would depress the sale price?

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This is another indication of decline in popularity of BBL with both FTA and pay TV ratings down from last summer.

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Because they changed format midway through the ratings period.

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Can’t really say I’m surprised about that happening.

Breakfast with Robbie Buck & Wendy Harmer had a 1.3% increase, but Evenings went down by 0.9% with 2GB and 2CH (up by 0.5% and 0.4% respectively during the same timeslot) likely picking up the listeners lost after the departure of Chris Bath.

Probably the biggest surprise of this survey, even with the recent branding refresh I was expecting Smooth to remain Sydney’s #1 FM station.

Although format changes didn’t stop Macquarie (as the ownership was back then) keeping stations in the ratings as Talking Lifestyle transitioned to Macquarie Sports Radio…or when 2UE/Magic transitioned to Talking Lifestyle before that.

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Good insight.

Poor planning by 9 Radio not commencing the new Music format before the start of Survey 1 - 2020. Then again, they only had a few years to realize the Sports Talk Format would never make money.

Bad figures for the Music format will have to wait for Survey 2 - 2020.

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smooth in Sydney may be suffering as it is sounding a little more WSFM.

“The same old songs, all the time”

When I hear the same old song I hit the old station selector button.

Cue: Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper. Hit: Switch to 2DayFM

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Yes true.

I’m actually preferring Smooth Relax of late.

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They need to shit or get off the pot regarding whether they are a Triple M station or the 94.5 of old. This half and half clearly isn’t working.

Edited to add: looking at the dab+ ratings, they need to kill MMM country in Perth and put Hard and Heavy in its place.

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