With 2GB‘s Ray Hadley celebrated a 150th consecutive ratings win, Ben Fordham up 3.1 and on top with an 18.1 share in breakfast and 2GB and 3AW the outright No.1 stations in Sydney and Melbourne, its little wonder Nine‘s Head of Content Greg Byrnes was enjoying some Fordham provided cupcakes with Hadley’s face on them when he caught up with Radioinfo’s Peter Saxon.
Byrnes talked about keeping the momentum going in Perth and Brisbane, which both have seen significant line up changes in the last 12 months with Neil Breen leaving 4BC Drive midway through this survey period.
With 3AW is clearly ahead in Melbourne (albeit slightly down) and Ben Fordham’s Survey 4 results the second best ever since he took over from Alan Jones, Byrnes still feels there is room for growth, especially via DAB+.
“I think that’s a real opportunity for talk because there’s been a perception over the years, probably rightly, that the AM signal is is less of a broadcast and less of a listening experience. But listening via digital, we’re all on a level playing field. So people that are finding us live and local talking about your city, your town, every day, breaking news, weather, sport, traffic. It’s really important now, when people are finding us there, and if they’re listening via a digital platform, there’s no handicap for us in relation to the listening experience. And I think that’s a real opportunity for talk.”
I agree with the general tenor of the podcast that Nine Radio is generally the market leader in all capital cities that Nine Radio covers.
However, I do find an anomaly with the Canberra market for commercial talk radio and the ABC.
The commercial talk market of 2CC in Canberra is owned by a joint venture of Capital Radio and Grant Broadcasters.
Yes they are not Nine Radio but many of Nine Radio's programs are relayed from Nine Radio's 2GB which include: Ray Hadley, Den Knight, Mark Levy and John Stanley.
Source:
https://www.2cc.net.au/programs/ .
The 2GB broadcasters are market leaders in Sydney but not so in contributing to the overall rating of 6.5%.
The ABC stations RN and ABC Canberra rate 7.4% and 11.1% respectively.
https://radioinfo.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/GfK_Radio-Ratings-Report-Canberra_Survey-2-2023_Page_2.jpg
The anomaly? In other capital city markets the ratings for RN and capital city metropolitan stations have tanked to about 1%-1.6% (approximately) and 5%-6% (approximately) respectively while Nine Radio are "near" market leaders for example Brisbane's 4BH (music) at 9.5% versus Nova 106.9, 11.9% and 4BC (talk) at 6.4% versus ABC Brisbane 5.6%.
Generally the Canberra market is quite different and talk programs supplied by 2GB don't imply that what works for Sydney will work in Canberra.
Conversely what doesn't work for the ABC in the major capital cities works in Canberra.
People with more knowledge of the markets can elaborate.
Thank you
Anthony, Strathfield South, in the land of the Wangal and Darug Peoples of the Eora Nation