Coles Radio and Triple M Classic Rock lead DAB+ ratings
DAB+ digital radio is continuing to grow in popularity
Commercial Radio Australia has released the GfK DAB+ Digital Radio Report #2 2016 which includes commercial DAB+ digital radio only stations. The Nova-operated Coles Radio has come out on top of the survey with a cume audience of 148,000 in the four metro markets it operates in.
Just behind in second place is SCA's Triple M Classic Rock with 144,000 from its four metro markets.
DAB+ digital radio is continuing to grow in popularity, gaining 168,000 listeners to reach 3.52 million in the five metropolitan capital cities.
Commercial Radio Australia said the numbers were helped by solid growth in in-car listening, with another 91,900 new vehicles sold with DAB+ installed in the first quarter of 2016.
Honda has become the 28th car brand to support digital radio in Australia, including DAB+ for the first time in the new Honda Civic released this month.
The GfK report showed that 26.3% of Australians had listened to radio via a DAB+ digital radio in the first three radio survey periods of the year. Of these, 2.62m had tuned into DAB+ simulcasts of AM and FM stations and 1.42m had listened to digital-only stations.
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Digital radio was most popular in Melbourne, where 1.17m people or 27.5% of the population tuned in, followed by Sydney with 1.11m listeners, or 25.8% of the population.
Recent developments include the launch of a Greek-language station in Melbourne called Rythmos, Southern Cross Austereo’s launch of two new stations Oldskool Radio and Easy Radio plus the announcement that it will partner with the Seven Network to create a new DAB+ pop-up station for the Olympic Games called 7 Rio Live, which will run live audio simulcast during the event.
Glenn Wheatley will also launch EON Sports Radio on DAB+ in July. Australia’s first 24/7 digital sports radio network, EON will broadcast major sports such as the A League and NBL, plus will be the exclusive Australian audio broadcaster of the English Premier League. The station will be available in the five capital city markets.
