Media Releases

Radio New Zealand Audience Research 2007

Released at 4:15 pm on 27 November 2007

As an independent, commercial free public service broadcaster Radio New Zealand's purpose is to serve the public interest. The Radio New Zealand Charter sets out our operating principles and objectives.

Full details of Radio New Zealand's performance against a range of Charter objectives can be found in the Radio New Zealand Annual Report which is tabled in Parliament each year. The latest Radio New Zealand Annual Report is available as a pdf file on this website in the About Us section.

The following information relates to Radio New Zealand's 2007 audience research.

Survey Methodology

Each year Radio New Zealand conducts a fully representative, nationwide survey among all people aged 15 years and over. This year, in a significant move away from our traditional six to eight week annual radio surveys, Radio New Zealand introduced a new approach which will, ultimately, have radio diaries in the field continuously for 40 weeks of the year. This is a fundamental change in methodology and 2007 will be treated as an 'interim' year which we will use to set base figures for comparison in subsequent years.

The 2007 interim survey results are based on the first 20 weeks of surveying.

The new Values Indices Research is designed to measure public perceptions of Radio New Zealand and the value of public service broadcasting to all New Zealanders.

These results will be up-dated during the year and made available to the public via this website.

 

Perceived Value of Radio New Zealand

New Zealanders aged 15 and over were asked " How much do you agree or disagree that it is important for New Zealand to have a public service radio broadcaster?"

84% Agreed and thought it was important 5% Disagreed and thought it wasn't important 8% Neither agreed nor disagreed. 3% Didn't know

 

New Zealanders aged 15 and over were asked " How much do you agree or disagree that Radio New Zealand provides a valuable service for New Zealanders?"

77% Agreed that Radio New Zealand provides a valuable service. 6% Disagreed 8% Neither agreed nor disagreed 9% Didn't know

 

Radio New Zealand Audiences

Radio New Zealand National and Radio New Zealand Concert together attract 571,000 listeners aged 15 years and over in an average week. (Monday to Sunday, midnight to midnight.) This compares with a cume audience of 540,900 in 2006.

Radio New Zealand National Audiences

The cume audience for Radio New Zealand National is 487,000 listeners aged 15 years and over. The comparable figure in 2006 was 474,700 listeners.

Radio New Zealand Concert Audiences

Radio New Zealand Concert has a cume audience of 207,000 listeners aged 15 years and over. This compares with a figure of 127,100 listeners in 2006.

Radio New Zealand Website

Radio New Zealand now has the highest ranking for unique browsers of any New Zealand radio website. (Source: Nielsen NetRatings.) For the year to 30 June 2007, more that 2 million programmes or programme segments were requested via the website and over 8 million page impressions were delivered.

The radio research also showed that among Radio New Zealand listeners, 79% of listeners think the Radio New Zealand website provides a valuable service, and over 80% appreciate that people have the opportunity to access previously broadcast material via the website using podcasting or audio on demand.

Sources:

2007 Radio New Zealand Value Indices Research conducted by The Nielsen Company 2007 All New Zealand Radio Survey conducted by The Nielsen Company 2007 Radio New Zealand Listener Survey conducted by The Nielsen Company