Radio is still showing robust and stable measurement in South Africa, the Broadcast Research Council of South Africa (BRC) said this week as they released their November 2016 RAM presentation.
The presentation covers Q3 July – September and BRC presented the comparison of six months rolling: January – June vs. April – September as well as nine months rolling, to show the sample building up over the year.
Setshwano Setshogo, BRC research director , said they were building up to a 30 000 sample would present the last quarter, and the full year in February 2017.
From January to September the sample included 23 329 households equating to 53 396 individual diaries. The national sample reflects South Africa’s 15+ adult population of 38 million people.
Interviews continue every day of the week, across every province and area type. This enables the 60% metro, 20% small urban and 20% rural split required. Stations included 39 commercial and PBS stations and 266 community stations measured during the fieldwork period.
“We’re building the sample to ensure that the smaller stations have an opportunity to have sample to work with. With the additional three months, you can see that 32% off community stations now have a sample big enough and 97% of commercial and PBS stations have a sample. Now an additional 17 community stations have data they can sue with a sample greater than 40,” said Gisela Seeley, client service director (media) at TNS.
There is still confirmation of longer listening times at 4h06. Free State has the longest listening time at 5h00 and Gauteng the shortest time at 3h30.
Broken down by language, English has the shortest listening time at 3h12 and Ndeble the highest at 4h42.
Heavy listening (more than 20 hours per week) is showing a stable trend, down slightly to 52% in January – September from 54% in the January – June period. Medium listening (10.25 – 20 hours per week) is up slightly to 26% January – September from 25% January – June. Light listening (0.25 – 10 per week) has stayed the same at 21%.
South Africans are loyal to their radio stations with 64% listening to only one station. Rural listeners are the most loyal at 67%, followed by small urban at 65% and urban at 60%. Free State has the highest loyalty at 76% followed by the Northern Cape at 72%. Gauteng has the least loyal listeners at 57%.
Broken down by language, English and Xhosa listeners are the least loyal at 61% and Ndebele the most loyal at 73%.
Looking at devices, from January – June and January– September at nine months rolling, the trend is stable and continuing across the board.
Location is also showing a stable trend with 87% listening at home, 33% listening in a vehicle, 11% listening in the workplace or uni and 6% listening in a restaurant or shopping centre or airport.
Commercial and PBS stations with the highest percentage of exclusive listeners are Ukhozi at 59% and Thobela FM at 56%. At the low end 5FM has 25% loyalty, with YFM at 24% and Good Hope at 27%. The lower percentages may be attributed to the 90/10 local content ruling.
Community station Kouga has the highest share of exclusive listeners at 59%, followed by Bok Radio at 53% and Moretele at 50%. “The community stations have quite a high average hours listening per day, which indicates that South Africans are akin to their communities and are getting involved in their community stations. Exclusive listening also comes through quite clearly here,” said Setshogo.
Share of audience by province is showing stable trends. Umhlobo Wenene is still way ahead in the Eastern Cape with 52% of listeners. Lesedi FM takes top spot in the Free State with 61% listenership. Gauteng audiences are more evenly split with Metro FM ahead with 15%, followed by UKhozi and Lesedi FM both with 11%. Uhkhozi in KZN is way ahead with 54% listenership. Limpopo’s Thobela FM is also far ahead of the other stations with 37% listenership. Mpumalanga shows a more even split with Ligwalagwala still ahead with 22%. Motsweding in North West is far ahead with 44%. RSG has taken over the top spot in the Northern Cape with 24% listenership and Motsweding FM has fallen to second place with 21%. The Western Cape also shows a more even split with Umhlobo Wenene taking top spot with 19% listenership, followed by Heart FM with 14%.
Looking at devices, the vast majority of South Africans are still listening to the radio. The second most popular device is cellphones and in the case of YFM and Capricorn, this has overtaken traditional radio as the more popular listening device. Vehicle radio is the next most popular device with Bok Radio, Classic FM, Cape Talk and Rise showing significant percentages of listenership, Listening on TV is highest for Ligwalagwala at 14% and lowest at 3% for Gagasi. Computers are the least popular listening device at between 1 and 3 percent per station, with the exception of Rise which shows computer listenership at 8%, OFM at 4% and YFM at 5%.
Most South Africans are listening to the radio at home. Star FM and QwaQwa listeners are the highest in this category at 99%. This is followed by vehicle listenership, with 947 having the highest percentage at 68%. Rise has the highest percentage of listeners in the Work/Uni category with 35%. The most popular station in the restaurant/shopping centre/airport category is Good Hope with 11%.
Looking at the trending one week cume, Metro had dropped off in the last six months and Good Hope, Jacaranda and East Coast also show a slight drop off, Jozi, Kaya, Cape Talk and KFM have grown.
The community stations showing growth are Jozi and Unitra. Voice of the Cape has dropped off significantly and Radio Tygerberg and Radio Zibonele have dropped off slightly.
Looking at reach by media type, radio has good penetration across the board while newspapers and magazines have dropped off. With cinema being a more exclusive medium, it makes sense that the reach is lower.
