Australians are listening to 23 minutes more commercial radio year on year, underpinned by a love of breakfast radio, 2.8 million people aged 10-24 listening, and commercial radio’s ability to be with people wherever they are, the latest GfK Radio Survey 5 has revealed.
Breakfast attracted nearly 8.55 million listeners, a growth of 2.4 percent or 202,000 year on year, with average audiences increasing by 5.1 percent.
“Commercial radio listening remains strong across the board, with over 12.1 million people tuning in. Underlying this strength is the continued powerhouse of breakfast radio,” Ford Ennals, CEO of CRA said.
Weekend listeners reached 9.9 million people, up 2.6 percent or 255,000 people. People who listened to commercial radio at work rose 11.5 percent to 2.49 million, adding 256,000 new listeners compared to the same period last year.
Overall, Survey 5 showed commercial radio reached 81.5 percent, or 12.1 million people each week across the five major metro markets, with 107,000 more people tuning in this year than same survey last year.
Australians aged 10+ are listening to more commercial radio year on year, with an average of 13 hours, 10 minutes per week, up 23 minutes, which underpinned an average audience growth of 3.9 percent.
The number of people listening via streaming continues to grow. More than one in four listeners stream commercial radio, with over 3.2 million, or 21.7 percent listening via streaming devices. People are listening via streaming for 4 hours, 20 minutes each week, up 20 minutes from GfK Survey 4. The majority of listening via streaming takes place at home.
Commercial radio’s continued growing appeal to younger listeners was revealed in Survey 5.
87 percent of people aged 10-24 listen to commercial radio each week, listening for
11 hours, 50 minutes. Listening grew by 1 hour, 8 minutes week compared to 2022. Listening for people aged 18-24 listening was up 2 hours, 17 minutes.
“Younger audiences are loving the quality content and community that commercial radio can provides like no other medium. They are a highly mobile demographic, with 40 percent of listeners aged 18-24 listening via streaming,” Mr Ennals said.
Commercial DAB+ listening is up 5.3 percent to 2.7 million people from the same period last year. Breakfast DAB+ listening was up 14.2 percent.
The continued success of commercial radio in Australia will be acknowledged at the Australian Commercial Radio & Audio Awards, to be held in Sydney on October 14. The Awards will also celebrate a century of radio in Australia.