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Radio listenership down
Thu, 23 Apr 2009
According to the South African Advertising Research Foundation’s (SAARF) RAMS April 2009 Release as prepared by Nielsen, radio listening is down by 13 minutes per day compared to the same period last year. This is despite the fact that listening is up four minutes per day compared to the February 2009 RAMS release.
South Africa’s favourite radio station as per the April 2009 release is Ukhozi FM, followed by Umhlobo Wenene FM and Lesedi FM.
In presenting the April 2009 Release on 23 April in Johannesburg, Nielsen’s Sue Scott noted some of the key news events that had happened in the mid-October 2008 to mid April 2009 period under review. These were: the global economic collapse, cholera in Zimbabwe, the terrorist siege of Mumbai, end of year exams, the run up to the elections, Morgan Tsvangirai’s car accident which resulted in the death of his wife, and lots of sporting events in soccer, rugby, cricket and tennis.
Said Scott: “Some 18,570 respondents took part in the April 2009 Release. We have included a new sample group representing 15-year olds for 2009, although they are not yet reflected in this release. Overall there is a national average of four hours seven minutes spent listening to the radio per day. Free State is the province which listens to the radio the most, with an average of four hours 40 minutes per day. Listeners are down across the week in the metropolitan areas. Generally speaking, fewer listeners are listening for slightly longer periods.”
In terms of the percentage of listenership by the quarter hour, the February 2009 and April 2009 releases are very close. In the previous year there was more viewing on Saturday mornings, while on Sunday there is higher early morning listening than last year.
The Gender/Age Profile of listeners is virtually unchanged since last year, while the LSM Profiles show there is a decline in LSM3 listenership, while LSM6 is up. South Africans listen to 2.1 stations in the average week. Limpopo province has the highest listenership of stations, followed by Gauteng.
5FM is up on the previous year across the week and has showed an upward trend in the last two releases. KFM, Algoa FM, 94.7 Highveld Stereo, SAFM and Classic FM have a very steady listenership, while YFM shows annual growth. Metro FM has dropped since the February 2009 release and Radio 702’s listenership is going up. The total community radio listenership over seven days is higher than the previous year.
Scott also presented a “Gauteng only” report, in which a sample of just over 5,000 respondents kept radio diaries. 94.7 Highveld Stereo had the largest share with 11.6%, followed by Lesedi, Metro, YFM and Kaya.
For listeners with English as their home language, 94.7 Highveld stereo has the biggest share followed by 702 and 5FM. For Afrikaans speakers, Highveld is the most popular followed by RSG, which has decreased its share since the last RAMS release, as has the third most popular station, Jacaranda.
Ukhozi is the most popular station for the Nguni languages, followed by Metro, YFM and Kaya. Lesedi has the highest share of listenership for the Sotho languages.
Highveld has overtaken Metro, Lesedi, YFM and Kaya as the favourite station in Gauteng.
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