The Breeze now has a total audience of 597,100, followed by its sister MediaWorks station More FM with 521,900 listeners (up 3800), NZME’s ZM with 502,300 listeners (up 26,300) and The Edge with 502,100 listeners (down 2500).
In terms of overall share, MediaWorks’ The Rock (8.4 points) is third – closing the gap on The Breeze to less than a share point. It’s then followed by two more MediaWorks stations – More FM (7.2) and Breeze Classic (6.1).
NZME, which owns the NZ Herald, highlighted standout performances of ZB, ZM, Flava and The Hits – and an overall uplift in the company’s commercial share from 35.8% to 36.1%.
MediaWorks, whose sale to Australian firm Sports Entertainment Group was announced last week, still has a healthy overall share lead although it eased slightly, from 54% to 53.9%. It will be pleased with the performance of The Rock and More FM and, in particular, More FM’s breakfast show.
Mike Hosking interviews Prime Minister Christopher Luxon in the ZB studios. Photo / Michael Craig
Mike Hosking and ZB still dominate the breakfast ratings – his nationwide share has lifted from 20.4 points to 20.6 points and his Auckland share from 20.4 points to 22.4 points.
More FM’s breakfast show – hosted by Simon Barnett and Lana Cochrane-Searle – moved from fourth spot into second in New Zealand, on a share of 8.2 points. It is fourth in Auckland, behind ZB, Mai FM and The Breeze.
Simon Barnett and Lana Cochrane-Searle host MediaWorks’ More FM breakfast show.
When it comes to overall breakfast audience, ZB leads, with a listenership of 444,500, followed by ZM (297,400, up 16,700), More FM (288,900, up 12,500), Breeze (283,000, down 16,800) and The Edge (262,900, up 600).
NZME chief audio officer Jason Winstanley was thrilled with the results, which come as ZB celebrates its 100th birthday.
He added: “ZM has had an outstanding survey, and it’s brilliant to see The Hits and Flava building on their momentum too. I’m also so proud of the iHeartCountry team for this result – their first full national survey since launch, and a great sign of things to come as the station reaches even more country music fans across New Zealand.”
NZME chief executive Michael Boggs said the results underlined the continued strength and value of radio for listeners and advertisers.
“Commercial radio remains powerful, reaching millions of Kiwis every week, and it’s great to see NZME growing both its share and its audience this survey. That growth is a direct result of the investment we continue to make in our talent, our content and our brands.”
Public broadcaster RNZ’s radio audience numbers will be released next week. It will be hoping those numbers follow the path of its website audience.
Stuff has maintained the top spot in the latest July Nielsen online numbers, with a monthly unique audience of 2.2 million (up 3% on June); NZ Herald sits at 1.85m (down 4.4%), and RNZ is now at 1.79m (up 8.4%).
Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME.