Radio Maintains Strong Appeal Among Malaysians With Nine In 10 Tuning In Weekly

Share of Total Ratecard Advertising for Radio Hits an All-Time High of Six Percent in the Period of January to September 2009

20 October 2009
Kuala Lumpur

Radio as a medium retains its popularity among people aged 10 years and above in Peninsular Malaysia, with nine in 10 tuning in every week, according to the latest Radio Audience Measurement (RAM) Malaysia study by The Nielsen Company.

Conducted twice a year, Nielsen RAM studies the demographic profile, listening preferences and product consumption of people in Peninsular Malaysia, providing valuable insights to assist advertisers to reach their target audience effectively. The study is based on individual quarter-hour diaries completed by a representative sample of 3,000 individuals in Peninsular Malaysia. The most recent survey – Sweep 2, 2009 – was conducted from 3 -16 August 2009, with 15.2 million people aged 10 years and above listening to radio for at least 15 minutes during the survey period (see Table 1).

On average, radio attracts an audience of 11.1 percent (1.87 million) of listeners in any given 15 minute time slot throughout the day and an average radio listener tunes in for 20.4 hours in a week (see Table 2).

“Clearly, radio isn’t just surviving, but actually thriving! These are exciting times for commercial radio operators as radio adspend to-date this year has increased to an all time high of six percent. The fact is radio has developed within itself to be a multi-dimensional media. Radio content is available via various media platforms and devices – mobile phones, the Internet, PDAs and satellite television - and that’s a testament to the fact that advertisers put their trust in radio to reach the masses. Our challenge now is to integrate these channels and provide content like no other medium”, opines Dato’ Borhanuddin Osman, President of Commercial Radio Malaysia (CRM).

Among the Malay channels, hotfm moves up the rankings to occupy the first position, with an increase in weekly listeners to 3.80 million (22.7 percent). Taking second spot is ERA with 3.76 million in weekly reach. SINAR reached 22.3 percent (3.73 million) listeners and now occupies third place. Klasik nasional garnered 6.2 percent (1.03 million) listeners and managed to retain its eighth position while Muzikfm also maintained its ninth placing, with its reach of 4.9 percent (820,000) listeners. At the twelfth position is IKIM, reaching 719,000 (4.3 percent) listeners, while Suriafm claimed the fourteenth spot with its reach of 4.1 percent (690,000) listeners. XFM (Xfresh) occupies twenty second position with 277,000 listeners (see Table 3).

The top Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) regional channels are KELANTANfm with 4.5 percent reach and KEDAHfm with 4.2 percent reach. These two regional channels occupied tenth and thirteenth spots respectively in the overall rankings (see Table 3).

MY FM continues to lead the way among Chinese channels with 2.28 million weekly listeners while 988 maintains the second position with 1.58 million weekly listeners. aifm ranked third among Chinese channels, with 571,000 weekly listeners, followed by one FM in fourth spot with its reach of 3.1 percent (519,000) listeners (see Table 3).

Amongst the English channels, hitz.fm sustained its leading position by reaching 1.15 million listeners. Fly, with 727,000 (4.3 percent) listeners occupies second position followed by MIX FM (413,000), LITEFM (286,000), and TraXXfm (107,000) (see Table 3).

While the Tamil channel, minnalfm attracts 688,000 (4.1 percent) listeners on a weekly basis, the two bi-lingual channels THR Raaga/THR Gegar and red104.9 drew 3.03 million (18.1 percent) and 161,000 (1.0 percent) weekly listeners respectively (see Table 3).

Meanwhile, ratecard advertising spending on radio in the period January to September 2009 registered a double-digit growth of 21 percent to RM259.5 million – outperforming the total advertising market (excluding classifieds) which saw a six percent increase when compared to the same period last year. The growth in radio advertising spending is driven by increased spending by electrical retail, tourism authority, tonic and vitamin, fast food centre, healthfood drink categories (see Table 4).

As a result, radio’s share of total advertising (estimated at ratecard rates and excluding classified ads) in Malaysia hit an all-time high of six percent in this latest tracking period (see Table 4).

Sara Liew, Associate Director for Media, The Nielsen Company, Malaysia, commented, “By constantly evolving and broadcasting relevant content, radio manages to maintain its appeal among Malaysian listeners. It will be interesting to witness radio increasing its share of total advertising beyond the six percent level as it takes the next leap forward into the new era of digital radio”.

About The Nielsen Company
The Nielsen Company is a global information and media company with leading market positions in marketing and consumer information, television and other media measurement, online intelligence, mobile measurement, trade shows and business publications (Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Adweek). The privately held company is active in more than 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA. For more information, please visit, www.nielsen.com

Table 1: Reach Audience by Race

Source: Nielsen Radio Audience Measurement (RAM)

Table 2: Average Audience and Average Time Spent

Source: Nielsen Radio Audience Measurement (RAM)

Table 3 Channel Weekly Reach Audience

Source: Nielsen Radio Audience Measurement (RAM)

Table 4 Advertising Spending* (display ads only1) Jan-Sept 2008 & 2009

Source: Nielsen Advertising Information Service (AIS)

Notes:

*Nielsen measures advertising spending based on published rate cards. Outdoor advertising is based on actual billings by five media operators.

1Advertising spending figures reported above are based on display ads only i.e. excludes classifieds.

2Nielsen monitors advertising spending on terrestrial (free-to-air) television only.

3Internet spending (recently released from Jan 2008 onwards) is based on submissions from the following websites i.e. MSN Malaysia, Yahoo Malaysia, Forbes Malaysia, Utusan Online, Kosmo Online, Mangga Online, Sinchew-I, Guang Ming Online, Sin Chew Online, Soccerfanz, Kooky, Mysinchew, The Star Online, Parenthots.com, Saji Online & Tutor Online.