Industry body Commercial Radio and Audio (CRA) says weekly commercial radio cumulative audiences have hit new highs and people are listening to an hour more commercial radio each week (year on year), as revealed in GfK Survey 2.

The total average time people listened to commercial radio across the five major metro markets was 13 hours, 22 minutes a week.

The key 25 – 54 buying demographic average audience surged 11.7% year on year, with commercial radio audience listening up 38 minutes a week. Cumulative audiences increased by 308,000 or 5.4% year on year for the demographic.

CRA says young people 18 – 24 are embracing commercial radio, with a 7.2% increase in cumulative audience and a 25% increase in average audience year on year, driven by time spent listening surging 1 hour 30 minutes per week.

Commercial DAB+ stations again performed strongly with nearly 2.8 million weekly listeners, up 33.7% from 2.08 million a year ago.

“The quality and variety of commercial DAB+ stations have been embraced by the Australian listening community. And it’s across all demographics,” says CRA chief executive Ford Ennals.

“Commercial DAB+ only stations are attracting significant audiences, with over 300,000 weekly listeners for each of the top five station brands.”

The top five commercial radio DAB+ only station brands for GfK survey 2 were The 90s, Coles Radio, R&B Fridays Radio, The 80s and OLDSKOOL 90s HITS.

GfK survey 2 revealed a new record* of 12.2 million people listened to commercial radio, up 591,000 people year on year. Eighty-two percent of Australians aged 10+ listened to commercial radio each week during the survey period.

“GfK Survey 2 reaffirms the strength of commercial radio. Australians love commercial radio, and with the addition of new DAB+ content and stations, the industry is giving them more to love,” says Ennals.

*Gfk Survey 2 2023 commercial radio total cumulative audience 12.203 million listeners. GfK Survey 8 2022 commercial radio total cumulative audience 12.201 million listeners.