Greg Byrnes on Tapt Media’s ratings and post-Nine push

Tapt Media’s talk network emerged from GfK Radio 360 Survey 5 with the No.1 breakfast shows in Sydney and Melbourne, while 3AW remained Melbourne’s No.1 station.

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Across the survey, Tapt reached 1.762 million cumulative radio listeners. Its commercial streaming share rose to 26.8 per cent, with streaming cume up 20.8 per cent year on year to 466,000.

Following the results, Mediaweek spoke with Greg Byrnes, Tapt Media National Content Manager, about 2GB, 3AW, football, streaming and what has changed under the network’s new ownership.

2GB and the Sydney market

Mediaweek: 2GB has eased over the past few surveys, from around 13.3 in Survey 2 to 11.2 now. Ben Fordham is still comfortably number one at breakfast, but where do you see room in the schedule to make up some of that share?

Greg Byrnes: Ratings go up and down. We know that. We’re really pleased with particularly how the breakfast and morning shows are holding.

It’s a tough market in Sydney. There’s probably never been as much attention on the Sydney and Melbourne markets as there has been over the last 12 months or so.

For Ben to be holding what he’s doing in breakfast is pretty extraordinary in that tough Sydney market. Mornings is still doing really well. We’re really pleased with how 2GB is going.

Figures go up and down, but we’re holding and there’s consistency. There’s consistent growth. Cume is up today. We’re pretty pleased with how things are going.

Mediaweek: smoothfm has grown strongly over the past year and is now 2.3 points ahead of 2GB overall. Does the rise of easy-listening radio change how you think about talk radio’s ceiling in Sydney?

Greg Byrnes: No, not at all. We’re very comfortable and we’ve got a core audience who turn to us for trusted news and commentary.

They know what they get with us: live news, sport, weather, finance and traffic. Smooth is doing really well, but we’re playing in our patch and we’re very comfortable in the patch we’re playing in.

We feel that we’ve got a strong, loyal listener base there and have had many, many years of success. The market is certainly fragmented, I think more so in Sydney around breakfast at the present time, but we’re in a really strong position.

Our TSL is stable, our cume is up and the news cycle has never been busier. 2GB has just marked 100 years of broadcasting, which has played out really well and been very well received by our audience.

We just need to focus on what we do, and that’s what we’re doing.

Ross and Russ continue Melbourne dominance

Mediaweek: Over to Melbourne, Ross and Russ are at 19.5 per cent in breakfast, around nine points clear of the next show. With a program that dominant, is there still room for improvement or are you satisfied with where it sits?

Greg Byrnes: They turn up every day. There’s a very clear product that they put together and a service that they offer their audience, and their audience knows that consistently each day.

We’re very proud of what all of 3AW delivers, but the numbers on breakfast are remarkable.

To be nudging 20 per cent shares consistently for decades, I think we throw those numbers around, but I’m glad you’ve picked up on it, and then the streaming share for breakfast, they’re over 40 per cent, almost 44 per cent.

People know each day, when they turn on 3AW, particularly Ross and Russ and then Tom in mornings, what they’re going to get. They’ve delivered that consistently for many, many years and we’re very lucky to have that show as part of the many shows we have across the network.

Football at the pointy end

Mediaweek: You’ve spoken a lot about football being a major part of 3AW’s strength. With the AFL season wrapping up, what is the strategy for keeping those listeners engaged?

Greg Byrnes: More so than wrapping up, we’re at the pointy end. We’ve got an exciting few weeks ahead in relation to football.

We’re working with the football teams to make sure that we’re performing in the final quarter. That’s where the football season is right across the country.

There’s 6PR and 3AW obviously with AFL, and 4BC and 2GB with NRL. The seasons again have delivered very exciting content for us.

It’s not just the ball-by-ball live description of the game. It’s more so the commentary that flows right throughout our programming seven days a week in relation to football.

It’s an exciting time for us with the finals upon us. It’s been a great season, so there are exciting few weeks ahead.

Tapt Media’s first full survey

Mediaweek: This is the first full ratings survey entirely under Tapt Media ownership. Is there anything different about the radio product today compared with being part of Nine?

Greg Byrnes: No. The listeners, I like to think, wouldn’t hear much change.

We have a very successful radio product. Live and local is our focus and that remains where we need to be playing.

Behind the scenes there’s been a fair bit of change because it’s an agile business and it’s an exciting business. We’ve got ownership who are very interested to learn about the business and are full of ideas.

It’s an exciting time for the business, particularly as we expand on our strength in streaming. That’s digital and streaming, podcasting – that’s an exciting next phase of this business.

Through this ownership change that we’ve had over the last six months or so, it’s a really good position for us to be in and an exciting time to be playing in this content.