The ABC has backed its national morning radio show, RN Breakfast, hosted by Patricia Karvelas, after extensive coverage highlighting the show’s low listener numbers.
The most recent radio ratings survey results for the show were:
Sydney
10+ Share: 1.5% (Down 0.1)
Cume: 59,000 (Up 2,000)
Melbourne
10+ Share: 3.1% (Up 0.1)
Cume: 120,000 (Up 8,000)
Brisbane
10+ Share: 2.7% (Up 0.1)
Cume: 51,000 (Up 8,000)
Adelaide
10+ Share: 1.6% (Down 0.6)
Cume: 16,000 (Down 6,000)
Perth
10+ Share: 0.4% (Down 0.2)
Cume: 15,000 (Down 1,000)
By comparison, KIIS FM’s Kyle and Jackie O show recorded a 10+ share of 17.9% and cume of 921,000, while Melbourne’s Ross and Russel recorded a 10+ share of 19.5% and cume of 543,000.
In a statement, the ABC said that “To judge RN Breakfast’s performance solely on its average audience figure, based on a quarter hour, grossly misrepresents its listenership and how that listenership engages with the program over three hours each morning.
“RN Breakfast continues to be hugely influential, reaching just over 300,000 listeners in the five capital cities across each week. Once you factor in its total national broadcast audience, that figure rises to around 430,000 people.
“Of all the ABC’s radio networks, RN has been the most successful in growing its on-demand and podcast audiences.”
Survey three saw the introduction of Radio360, a new measurement system that takes into account the total broadcast and streaming audience figures for each radio station in the five major metro markets. Phase two of the rollout will see podcasting figures taken into consideration.
“On demand listenership at 480,000 streams weekly is not captured by GfK ratings and now make up just under half of the station’s total streams on ABC platforms,” the statement continued. “Furthermore, RN also delivers 2.3 million podcast downloads weekly across ABC and third-party platforms like Spotify and Apple, further displaying its strength on digital, thanks to its flagship programs, including RN Breakfast, leading this growth.
“Overall, RN reaches around 860,000 people nationally across the week.”
2023 is Karvelas’ second year at the helm of RN Breakfast after Fran Kelly stepped down at the end of 2021.
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