The Radio Audience Measurement conducted by GfK in the second half of 2022, in partnership with Commercial Radio Malaysia (CRM), revealed that there are 21,573,000 radio listeners every week.
The latest survey conducted over six weeks from September 11 to October 22 polled 6,000 unique individuals aged 10 years and above in Peninsular Malaysia. GfK utilized 4,500 paper diaries and 1,500 e-diaries to collect valuable insights on the strength and scope of radio listening across the country.
The survey also revealed that there are 6,694,000 listeners in a week among people aged 25 to 39 years old. It indicated an increase of 123,000 listeners as compared to the previous wave.
The highest radio listening location is in car with 15,104,000 weekly listeners, followed closely by 14,755,000 of home listeners in a week. Workplace listeners accounted for 2,004,000 of weekly listeners.
The study also showed that the weekday breakfast shows (Monday to Friday, 6am to 10am) continue to be a hit attracting 15,378,000 listeners every week, while the weekday drive time shows (Monday to Friday, 4pm to 8pm) trailing closely behind, reaching 14,954,000 listeners in a week.
Among the key languages in Malaysia, Bahasa Malaysia stations are most popular with 14,047,000 listeners every week. They are trailed by the Chinese stations with 4,949,000 listeners, followed by English stations at 4,320,000 listeners and Tamil stations at 1,831,000 listeners.
“As the country opens up, radio listening has come back stronger than ever. Its accessibility to drive a mass pool of listeners to on-ground events, radio broadcasters’ websites, mobile apps and social media pages has allowed it to grow and has proven itself to be quite a resilient medium. With a wide reach and immediate delivery, it is an effective medium for advertisers to get their message in front of across to their target consumers” said Loy Ekzan, Vice President of Commercial Radio Malaysia.
To provide additional insights into the radio listening behaviour of Malaysians, GfK have also conducted the Radio Insights study – a survey of 1,200 listeners aged 15 to 49 years old. According to the Radio Insights report, enjoy the music played by radio (62%), get updates on current trend/news/issues (54%) and easy access of radio (49%) are the top 3 reasons why listeners continue to choose radio compared to other audio options.
In addition, radio listeners are tuning in more especially for music and news content. 3 in 5 respondents said they are listening to songs more often than usual from the radio (60%), while 36 percent of the respondents said they are tuning in more for news update/latest information from the radio.
Radio continues to stay relevant in today’s era with the study revealed that 56 percent of radio listeners have at least 1 radio station’s application installed on their mobile phone. Among those who have at least 1 radio station’s application installed, 50 percent of them are within the age group of 25 to 39 years old, followed by 15 to 24 years old (30%) and 40 to 49 years old (20%).
Radio remains the effective media channel for advertiser to reach their audiences. 55 percent of the respondents claimed that radio advertisement made them aware of sales/promotions that were happening in conjunction with Merdeka Day. The survey also indicated that as a result of hearing the products/services from radio advertisement, they had made purchases from food and beverages (63%), groceries (44%) and beauty/cosmetics (32%).
“The Radio Audience Measurement Study conducted by GfK reveals that radio remains an influential and strong medium in Malaysia. With more people listening to the radio in the morning, it is evident that people across all age groups choose radio for their daily dose of music, relaxation and news updates during their commute to school and work” concluded June Pang, Media Measurement Lead – Malaysia, GfK.
Note:
GfK Radio Audience Measurement Wave 2 2022 (11th September 2022 till 22nd October 2022) versus GfK Radio Audience Measurement Wave 1 2022 (20th February till 2nd April).
GfK Radio Insights September 2022 (13th September 2022 till 3rd October 2022).
