Malaysian radio listenership achieves a high reach of 94% during the pandemic
The GfK Radio Audience Measurement Survey (RAM) Wave 1, 2021 revealed a new high for Malaysian radio as it reached a high of 94% of individuals in Peninsular Malaysia, equivalent to 20.6 million weekly radio listeners, increasing by 282,000. From this, Astro Radio grew its market share to 74.4% of available radio listeners or 15.3 million weekly listeners, despite unprecedented times.
Astro Radio’s increased reach in radio listenership was made possible by 18.7 million monthly average digital radio streams, 23 million social media followers, 127.7 million monthly average video views, 7.4 million monthly average website page views and 64.9 million monthly average Facebook page reach. Astro Radio brands continued to rank No. 1 across all languages: ERA, the No. 1 Malay brand; HITZ, the No. 1 English brand; MY, the No. 1 Chinese brand; and RAAGA, the No. 1 Tamil brand.
- ERA increased its weekly reach amongst young Malay listeners between the ages of 10 to 29, from 2.8 million to 3.2 million, marking Malaysia’s highest radio reach in this age group.
- SINAR, Malaysia’s second most-listened-to brand saw an increase in weekly listenership from 4.8 million to 4.9 million.
- GEGAR, Malaysia’s No. 1 radio brand in the East Coast increased its Exclusive Audience to 332,000 and achieved the highest ‘Time Spent Listening’ for Malay brands at 8 hours and 4 minutes weekly.
- With 2.2 million weekly listeners, HITZ achieved the highest ‘Exclusive Audience’ for English brands at 269,000 listeners.
- LITE saw an increase for its Breakfast segment by almost 50,000, now reaching 458,000 listeners and an increase in Exclusive Audience from 79,000 to 101,000 listeners.
- Weekly listenership on MY increased to 2.2 million, while the evening Drive segment increased to 1.3 million listeners. MY also achieved the highest ‘Time Spent Listening’ for Chinese brands and increased this number to 7hours and 30 minutes weekly.
- RAAGA increased its weekly listeners to 1.4 million. This increase was also reflected in the Breakfast segment with an increase of 148,000 listeners to a high of 920,000 listeners, and an increase in the Drive segment to 815,000 listeners. RAAGA also recorded the highest ‘Time Spent Listening’ increase amongst all Radio brands, increasing to 10 hours 2 minutes weekly.
The survey was carried out over 6 weeks with a mix of traditional radio diaries (75%) and e-diaries (25%) distributed to 6,000 unique individuals across Peninsular Malaysia to capture their listening habits. 18 commercial radio brands subscribed to this wave and Astro Radio secured 6 positions in the Top 10 brands ranking.
Data source: GfK Radio Audience Measurement (RAM), Wave 1 2021 | Facebook Page Reach: Facebook Insights (Jan-Mar 2021) | Digital Streams: Radioactive (Jan-Mar 2021) | Website Unique Visitors/Page Views: Google Analytics (Jan-Mar 2021) | Video Views: Facebook Creator Studio, CrowdTangle, YouTube (Jan-Mar 2021) | Total Social Media Followers: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube (Jan-Mar 2021)
