NZME Wins Print, Celebrates Commercial Radio Survey

Media Release for Immediate Release – 20 September 2018

NZME Wins Print Last Week and Today Celebrates Commercial Radio Survey Results

Commercial Radio Remains Strong while NZME and Partners Overtake MediaWorks in Auckland

20 September 2018 – The celebrations continue at NZME this week with upward momentum in the latest 2018 GfK independent commercial radio survey with NZME growing overall listeners. NZME and its partners have won the Auckland market, now having more listeners and market share than MediaWorks*. NZME’s chief commercial officer, Matt Headland says it’s a game changer.

“From a commercial perspective Auckland is critical in the New Zealand market as it affords significant value. This latestcommercial radio survey result for NZME and partners is very strong, particularly our audience growth and engagement with the 35-64-year-old demographic in Auckland*, placing us in a great position to deliver strong advertising solutions for clients.”

Continuing to add breadth to NZME’s advertising offering, iHeartRadio delivered 22% growth year on year with over 800,000 registered users and an average of 2.9 million listening hours (up 20% year on year) each month.

Commercial radio has again proven it remains highly relevant as a medium, with 3.4 million commercial radio listeners tuning in which equates to 80% of New Zealand’s population. During the period, NZME and Partners gained 30,200 listeners, with MediaWorks going backwards by 32,300 listeners.

Newstalk ZB continued its dominance retaining its number one station overall across New Zealand*, along with the Mike Hosking Breakfast Show being number one again nationally and in Auckland**. Newstalk ZB has also extended its lead increasing audience in Auckland and market share in Wellington – lifting its overall, total audience to 513,000 nationally.

"Our lead in Auckland continues to increase and is wonderful testament to the work and passion of our broadcasters, producers and journalists,” says NZME managing editor Shayne Currie.

"Mike Hosking continues to reign supreme at Breakfast, following a period of hard-hitting and agenda-setting interviews and news stories."

Currie said ZB's extraordinary success was a further example of how NZME's integrated newsrooms were paying dividends. This was further recognised on Friday, when The New Zealand Herald won best daily news brand in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific.

"Newstalk ZB, the Herald, Radio Sport and our five regional daily newspapers are a force for good in news and sport. We're continually thinking about our audiences and delivering to them the very best stories and content."

NZME’s group director entertainment, Dean Buchanan says the NZME music brands results are strong, with ZM, Coast, Mix and Flava deserving special mentions.

“ZM is now NZME’s biggest station with 516,300 listeners which is exciting as listeners are truly embracing the changes we’ve made in recent years. Bree and Clint (Bree Tomasel and Clint Roberts) have debuted strongly in afternoon Drive, they’re a natural pairing with great rapport and will go from strength to strength.”

Buchanan says other highlights include Coast, which increased listeners by over 19,000 and retained its status as New Zealand’s number one Music station (all people 35 plus)*, Mix gained almost 18,000 listeners while Flava continues to ride the urban music high gaining over 5,000 more listeners.

“I’m stoked for Coast’s Breakfast with Jason Reeves and Bernadine Oliver-Kerby, their popularity and success has grown*** and the brilliant Daz and Ast (Darryl Suasua and Astley Nathan) on Flava’s Drive had a top survey. NZME’s other new show this year, Brodie Kane and Dave Fitzgerald’s Breakfast on The Hits in Christchurch, also grew again in listeners and market shares^.

ENDS

National sources

GfK Radio Audience Measurement, Commercial Radio Stations, Total New Zealand Survey 3 2018 (NB: Waikato Survey 3 2017), Cumulative Audience (000s), Mon-Sun 12mn-12mn, People 10+, unless otherwise stated. Any comparisons made are done with GfK Survey 2 2018, unless otherwise stated.:

*Commercial Share (%), Mon-Sun 12mn-12mn, People 10+, unless otherwise stated.

**Commercial Share (%) and Cumulative Audience (000s), Mon-Fri 6am-8.30am, People 10+.

***Commercial Share (%) and Cumulative Audience (000s), Mon-Fri 6am-10am, People 10+.

^Commercial Share (%) and Cumulative Audience (000s), Mon-Fri 6am-9am, People 10+.

Includes in Auckland BBC, 95bFM, Humm FM and WTV’s radio stations, Chinese Radio AM936 and FM 99.4 Chinese Voice; and in Christchurch Pulzar FM.

iHeartMedia August 2018.

AdsWizz, StreamGuys 2017-2018.

About NZME

NZME is a leading New Zealand media and entertainment business that reaches more than 3.2 million kiwis[[1]]. Whether reading, listening or watching, our audience gets the content they want - where and when they want it. NZME offers advertisers a unique opportunity to access its growing audience via a fully integrated multi-platform presence. NZME is listed on the NZX Main Board (code NZM) with a foreign exempt listing on the ASX (code NZM). www.nzme.co.nz

[[1]] Nielsen CMI Fused Q3 17 – Q2 18 July 2018 AP10+. Based on unduplicated weekly reach of NZME newspapers, radio stations, and monthly domestic unique audience of NZME’s digital channels.

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