smoothfm #1 in Sydney, H&A see early growth

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and with the #radioratings conversation on twitter.

SYDNEY

Sydney is the ‘tale of the two bands’ today, with the AM band pretty stable, and the FM’s jumping around a fair bit. To the networks:

NOVA ENTERTAINMENT

• Celebrations in Sydney for Nova Entertainment as smoothfm goes #1 FM for the first time with an 8.2 share – and they’re not number #1 by a small margin, they’ve done it in style with a 1 point jump, leading WSFM by 0.6.
• Every demo improved, and smoothfm is now #1 FM in Mornings (equal with JJJ) and Afternoons, and #2 FM in Drive.
• A very exciting result for the NE team with smoothfm, and they will celebrate this result all night long.
• Not as much to celebrate for Nova 96.9 with a decline to 6.6 overall, although with the Sydney FM band being tight this survey, Nova is only 1.6 behind smoothfm.
• Dayparts were flat for Nova with not much movement, aside from drive where they have fallen half a point, with the audience appearing to go to a surging Hamish & Andy on 2Day.

SCA

• 2Day has jumped up 10+ to a 4.4%, off the back of big numbers from Hamish & Andy – and will have their sights on a Nova scalp.
• All eyes for 2Day were on Drive, and they won’t be disappointed. Hamish & Andy have added 2.7% to the drive share despite only being on-air for half the survey – which is an ominous sign for Nova and KIIS.
• 2Day drive now sits on 6.5%, a point behind KIIS, and 3 points behind Nova – with both of those two stations declining in Drive.
• However the flow-on to Breakfast hasn’t been massive. ‘Dan and Maz’ improved 0.6 to 3.9%, however still a long way off the pace, and with networks starting to look to 2016, they’d be wanting more growth in Breakfast in the back half of the year.
• 2Day moved up a little in daytimes, but they will be looking for further growth from Hamish & Andy to drive the station.
• Rough day at the office for Triple M Sydney, falling by 1.4%.
• 25-39’s are solid, with Triple M still #1 – although sharing with triplej – the damage was done 18-24 and 40-54 where the station copped a whack.
• The dayparts for Triple M are ugly. Down in Breakfast, and the falls continued through the day like a kind of radio bear market.

ARN

• The golden haired child of Australian Radio has been ARN for a while now, but in Sydney today, it is a perfect storm of reality for them.
• They’ve lost the #1 FM mantle to smoothfm, with WS falling to #2FM, and KIIS to #3 overall.
• And KIIS has been heavily impacted in drive by the return of Hamish & Andy, falling nearly 2 points to see Hughesy & Kate ranked in 2nd last FM position.
• KIIS particularly suffered 25-39’s with the evaporation of a massive amount of share, and a decent fall teens probably didn’t help.
• Kyle & Jackie fell 0.8 to sit in the #2 FM position now, behind WSFM.
• WS have fallen overall with the declines largely in target, and primarily across 9-4 where the station fell overall.
• Drive on WS held up well in the face of new competition and sits with a cluster of stations around the 7 mark.

MRN

• Pretty quiet result for the 3 MRN stations with all going up by a little bit – 2CH leading the way with a 0.7 jump.
• 2GB is, again, #1 overall by a mile driven by a dominant 55+ performance, and a massive Breakfast share from Alan Jones.
• 2UE appears to be held up by a creditable Breakfast performance (5.4%) and as usual a very strong weekends share.
• And the seemingly ‘on again off again’ sale didn’t impact 2CH today with the station up 0.7, driven by workday listening.

ABC

• One up one down. triplej has had a ripper result, up to 7% overall – ahead of Nova, Triple M and 2Day.
• triplej is now equal #1 25-39, equal #1 FM in Mornings, #2 FM in Afternoons.
• A very impressive result in Sydney for the J’s today.
• ABC 702 fell again, and is now underperforming quite significantly compared to what they would like to be doing.
• Falls in the key demos, falls in every daypart (aside from Mornings) make a rough survey for ABC702.

MELBOURNE

Melbourne is an SCA book today…and it’s been a while, but a nice one for Craig Bruce to bow out on in this market.

SCA

• If anyone doubted that Hamish & Andy still had it, they won’t be now. On-air for half the total survey period, and they’ve added 1.5% to Drive, and taken the daypart to #1 overall.
• Fox have risen off the back of that with Breakfast up half a point to 7.3, and daytimes seeing good increases.
• But it’s the demos that really tell the story – Fox was already #1 18-39, but now it completely monsters that demo.
• Overall, Fox didn’t quite get to #1, but you’d have to think it will happen next survey. The station is #3 FM on 8.3, just 0.1 behind Gold and 0.2 behind Triple M.
• Triple M also had a reasonably good result – flat overall, but up in target, and a few ups and downs through the dayparts that evened themselves out.
• However, any day you are #1 FM, and #1 FM Breakfast, is a good day…so Triple M will be pleased today.

NE

• Not a good day in Melbourne for Nova Entertainment, now having the bottom two ranked FM stations in the market.
• Nova was in last place prior to the survey, and has fallen further behind to sit on a 6.1 share.
• Nova is ranked #2 18-24 behind Fox, and #4 25-39 behind Fox, KIIS and Triple M.
• Breakfast on Nova has fallen to a 5.2 share to be equal last with smoothfm, and Mornings and Afternoons are also in the bottom position. 
• In the context of the overall station performance, ‘Kate, Tim and Marty’ on drive have done extremely well to be flat on a 8.7% share in the #3 FM position.
• And the news isn’t much better at smoothfm, who have copped a big whack overall to fall to 6.4% and ahead only of Nova on the FM band.
• The key demos were down for smoothfm, although 65+ they improved, but the damage was done in the workday where the station has fallen heavily in what is its heartland listening dayparts.
• Whilst NE will be celebrating in Sydney, it’s a pretty rough day in Melbourne.

ARN

• ARN have had a mixed day in Melbourne. Gold FM fell slightly, but enough to lose the #1 FM mantle to Triple M.
• Breakfast fell a touch, and daytimes did as well – but Gold remains #2 FM Breakfast and #1 FM across the day, so not bad there.
• Drive held up well in the face of the H&A launch, and improved it’s share to 7.9% overall; equal #3 FM.
• KIIS has fallen a touch overall, and sits in #4 FM position overall.
• The Drive performance was up, and whilst Hughesy & Kate have slipped to #2 behind Hamish & Andy, they have improved their share overall.
• For KIIS the workday was off enough to impact overall share.

MRN

• A good, if unexciting, day for MRN.
• 3AW up half a point, and #1 overall – and #1 in Breakfast, Mornings, Afternoons, Evenings and Weekends. In Drive, 3AW is #2 (behind Fox).
• Magic up a touch, with daytimes and evenings leading the way.
• So a solid, if not spectacular result for MRN – but they’ll take that every day of the week.

SEN

• Similar story with SEN – right in the guts of the footy season, flatt-ish on a 4.3 overall, with a solid 25-54 performance, and what would undoubtedly be strong male figures.
• No real movement of note in the dayparts – just a solid, steady as she goes result for SEN.

ABC

• Both ABC stations down in Melbourne; triplej off a touch to be 0.3% behind Nova. 
• However, triplej improved significantly 25-39 to be #1 in the demo by 4% or so on 17.5%. All other demos fell.
• Breakfast has grown on triplej to a 5.5% share; ahead of Nova and smoothfm.
• ABC774 fell 0.7 overall, largely driven by 65+ declines.
• And the seesaw Jon Faine vs Neil Mitchell battle continues, with the spoils going to Mitchell at 3AW this time in Mornings; Faine slipping 2.2% to 12.6%.

BRISBANE

ARN

Brisbane still sees 97.3 dominate the market, and while they and Nova 106.9 both lost some ground – 97.3 takes the prize.

• A drop of .7 this round for 97.3, they still hold a lead over Nova with a 13.3% share.
• In 18 to 39’s they had some good increases but the upper end took a bit of hit. There was also a correction in their 10-17’s
• 97.3 lost their breakfast mantle to Nova this round – down to an even 13% with Nova now half a point ahead.
• For 97.3 all shifts are down with the exception of Drive and Nights
• Steady as she goes for 4KQ – still an impressive 8.4%, up point one.
• 55 plus is up for KQ but 40-54’s took a dive
• Most Dayparts are steady with some small movements in the positive, breakfast lost half a point.

SCA

For SCA, one up, one down.

• Triple M took a hammering in 25-39’s overall, losing close to 6 points in that demo.
• They had gains in other demo’s but for them it’s the Male figures that matter.
• A half point slide for Breakfast – has them still 4th in the market. triple j just behind.
• hit105 up a tad – an 8.6.
• Some real positive gains for hit in 25-39’s and 18-24’s – 10-17’s recording the biggest jump for them.
• The ground Stav & Abby lost last round in breakfast is back – up nearly a full point to 7.7 share.
• Hamish & Andy’s return to hit105 sees a small increase in the drive result but not enough to take out Nova or 97.3.

NE

For Nova 106.9 while down overall, they would be happy to see breakfast go #1.

• Nova now holds a half a point lead in breakfast over 97.3, they also bookend the day nicely with the number 1 drive show in Brisbane.
• The good news kept coming with good increases in all day shifts.
• Nova took a bit of hit in 18-39 demos this round but still lead in commercial stations in the money band of 25-39’s.

MRN

They will be happy with the result for 4BC, up a full 1.2 points.

• Alan Jones Breakfast is up a full point to a 6.2 share, best result in a while
• Mornings with Ray Hadley had the biggest jump of all, up 2.3 to pull an 8.2 share
• Afternoons is up but come Drive, it crashes and burns and then recovers into Nights.
• For music brand Magic882, a flat result overall.
• Breakfast and Drive down with the other dayparts steady.

ABC

612 ABC down this round and into single figure territory.

• 612 is now level pegging with hit105 and fifth in the market.
• All said and done, Spencer is still a solid offering and is third overall in the market.
• Any other 612 shift took a whack.
• For triple j, a great increase for them and it see’s them fourth overall.
• Up in all dayparts with the standout being the drive show – up a full 1.5 points.