The New Zealand Commercial Radio Industry released the S3 2021 GfK Radio Audience Data into the market today, and it shows more than 3.7 million Kiwis were listening to radio every week and almost 3.5 million of those listen to commercial radio stations.
This survey period includes the first two weeks of the nationwide Level 4 lockdown.
Changes to collection methods have been made during lockdown in order to deliver the final survey of the year in November (S4) and this will include listening during the current alert level variations around New Zealand.
Radio Broadcasters CEO Jana Rangooni says: “As we have come to expect, the changes in Alert Levels in New Zealand and periods of lockdown bring a change in people’s behavior. They bring an increase in demand for up to date trusted information but also a need for music and entertainment to keep people company.”
NZME’s Newstalk ZB and its Breakfast host Mike Hosking have once again smashed audience records as the number one network with the most listeners of any commercial station across the country.
NZME Head of Talk, Jason Winstanley says: “Increasingly Kiwis are becoming critically aware of how crucial it is that authorities and politicians are held to account for the decisions they make. At Newstalk ZB we have never shied away from asking those questions and Kiwis are appreciating that more than ever.”
NZME’s music network ZM also continues to amass listeners, with ZM’s Fletch, Vaughan and Megan having gained an additional 10,800 listeners in the latest survey.
Meanwhile, MediaWorks achieved its highest ever audience share of 54.8 percent.
MediaWorks Director of Content, Leon Wratt, says: “Our teams across the country have delivered some terrific results with audience share increases in 10 of the 13 markets we operate in throughout the country.
“There’s been massive demand for rova throughout August with listening to The Rock 2000 via the app up more than 30 percent compared to last year.”
The third commercial radio survey release has been delayed a week due to the adjustments required to GfK’s diary processing that had to be implemented because of the Level 4 restrictions.
Since the global pandemic, GfK has developed more flexible options in both Australia and New Zealand in 2021 to ensure surveys can still be completed in periods of lockdown.
