ABC Radio’s daytime ratings fall flat in four capital cities
The continuing ratings struggles of ABC Sydney’s breakfast show are not the only concern within the national broadcaster’s radio division.
The popularity of ABC Radio Sydney’s all-important breakfast show continues to slide with the program’s share of audience falling below 10 per cent for the first time in three years.
James Valentine, who replaced long-time ABC Sydney breakfast hosts Wendy Harmer and Robbie Buck at the beginning of this year, recorded a 9.9 per cent audience share in the latest ratings survey, down 0.4 percentage points from the previous poll.
Valentine has now seen his listenership drop in five consecutive ratings surveys, dating back to January.
Last October, Harmer and Buck reached an audience share of 15.7 per cent but the ABC breakfast program has lost more than a third of its audience since then.
Radio bosses view the breakfast timeslot as the most critical program of the daily schedule, as listeners tend to stick with the station that they first tune in to each morning.
But the steady softening of Valentine’s ratings is not the only concern for ABC management arising out of this survey, which was conducted between May 22 and August 13.
The national broadcaster lost audience share in every single daytime radio slot across Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane and Sydney (with the exception of Richard Glover’s drive program which climbed 0.1 percentage points).
The only bright spot for the ABC was in Melbourne, with slight ratings bumps for the morning and afternoon shows, hosted by Virginia Trioli and Jacinta Parsons, respectively.
Elsewhere in Melbourne, 3AW mornings host Neil Mitchell slipped 1.3 percentage points to record an audience share of 17.7, but he remains comfortably ahead in the timeslot, with GOLD104.3 (12.4) and smoothfm 91.5 (10.8) in his wake.
The big mover in Melbourne in this survey was the breakfast show on NOVA 100, with the program, hosted by Chrissie Swan, Sam Pang and Jonathan Brown, moving to equal third in the timeslot, up 1.5 percentage points to 9.5.
In Sydney, 2GB’s Ben Fordham saw his ratings climb to 17.1 (up 1.6 percentage points), to increase his margin over breakfast timeslot rivals KIIS1065’s Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson, whose share of audience fell to 12.5 per cent (down 0.8).
In Brisbane, the new 4BC breakfast show trio of Laurel Edwards, Gary Clare and Mark Hine – having recently moved across from 4KQ to replace Neil Breen – lifted the program’s audience share by 2.1 percentage points to 10.1, taking it to fourth place in the timeslot.
Breen, who shifted to 4BC’s drive program to replace Scott Emerson, also managed to improve the station’s audience share in his new timeslot, lifting 0.6 percentage points to 3.9.
In Adelaide, FIVEaa’s David Penberthy (also a senior writer at The Australian) and Will Goodings have gained considerable ground on the city’s top rating breakfast program hosted by the ABC’s Nikolai Beilharz and Stacey Lee.
The FIVEaa duo’s breakfast show jumped two percentage points to record an audience share of 13.8, while their ABC rivals slumped by 2.3 points to sit on 16.6.
In Perth, NOVA 93.7’s breakfast show helmed by Natalie Locke, Nathan Morris and Shaun McManus remains the runaway leaders in the timeslot, reaching an audience share of 20 (up 1.6 percentage points), well ahead of nearest rivals Mix94.5 on 11.2 (down 0.7).
ABC Perth’s ‘Breakfast with Tom Baddeley’ fell from third to fifth in the timeslot, with the program’s audience share slipping 3.2 percentage points, from 10.9 to 7.7.
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