NZME‘s Newstalk ZB was again the top station in New Zealand in GfK Survey 1 2026, with a 14.4% audience share 10+ and cume audience of 657,000. Mediaworks’ The Breeze was the top music station, and the network had 54.5% of listeners’ ears.
All stations saw a large amount of stability, Newstalk ZB‘s 0.4 drop overall was the largest, but they still retained No 1 assisted largely by Mike Hosking on breakfast with a 20.4% audience share. Robert and Jeanette on Breeze, in second, had 8.7% by comparison.
Almost every station saw cumulative listener growth with Breeze and Newstalk ZB’s audience above 600K and The Edge and More FM both cracking 500,000 audience.
Total commercial cumulative audience grew 5% from the last survey, nearing 3.5 million listeners a week.
The Radio Bureau CEO Alistair Jamison said:
“It is great to see the continued strength of the total audio market. Linear radio consistently reaches more
than 70% of NZ every week, and with 43% of those listeners also consuming a podcast on a weekly basis, we are continuing to grow our audience opportunities and the range of platforms through which brands can engage with that audience.”
Chief Executive Officer of NZME, Michael Boggs said:
“It’s fantastic to see momentum across total audio audiences with 5% growth in listeners and
strong growth among younger demographics – 11% among 10–24 year olds and 10% in the 18–39 age group. Youth are also the heaviest consumers of podcasts and digital audio, meaning the next generation is already deeply engaged with audio platforms and content. That’s a really exciting signal for
the long-term future of audio.”
Wendy Palmer, MediaWorks CEO adds:
“This latest survey highlights what we already knew, that audio continues to deliver for both audiences and advertisers across New Zealand. Driving real business outcomes has always been the focus for audio, and with a 5% growth in cume for our channel, New Zealand really is listening to us. The audio listening audience offers direct access to real business results for our partners and that’s as strong a story
as we could hope for.”
