Radio still an effective medium in reaching Malaysians

Malaysian radio listenership has continued to grow steadily in the past five years, with 95% of people aged 10 years and above in Peninsular Malaysia tuned in to their favourite radio stations. According to a recent study by Nielsen, Malaysians spend more than two hours listening to their preferred station in a day on average.Malay language stations dominateMalay language stations climbed to an overall weekly reach of 56.3% (10.5 million listeners) as compared to 54.9% (10.2 million listeners) in previous year. The top three Malay language stations are ERA fm (4.8 million listeners) followed by SINAR fm (3.7 million listeners) and Hot FM (2.7 million listeners). Both IKIMfm and Best FM registered an average weekly reach of 4.0% (738,000 listeners) and 1.8% (329,000 listeners) respectively. (See chart 3).Improved listenership across English language stationsEnglish language stations in Malaysia had a weekly reach of 10.3% (1.9 million listeners) as compared to previous year which stood at 9.1% (1.7 million listeners).Malaysia’s leading English language station is still hitz.fm a weekly reach of 6.6% (1.2 million listeners) followed by fly FM with a weekly reach of 2.4% (441,000 listeners). Listeners recorded over six hours of infotainment on both fly FM (6h:43m) and hitz.fm (6h:22m).THR Raaga and THR Gegar also maintained an average weekly reach of 20.0% (3.7 million listeners) with listeners tuning into this bi-lingual station for almost 12 hours weekly (11h:55m).Best FM had their listeners tuned in to an average of almost 12 hours weekly (11h:25m) while both SINAR fm (9h:13m) and ERA fm (8h:05m) commanded about nine hours weekly followed by HOT fm (7h:32m).[gallery link="file" ids="100594,100595,100596"]The 13 key radio stations from Astro Radio Sdn Bhd, Media Prima Radio Networks, Institute of Islamic Understanding Malaysia (IKIM) and Best Media Network commanded 67% share of the radio market in Peninsular Malaysia. (See chart 2).“Although there is a growing number of media platforms in the market vying for consumers’ attention, radio still appeals to Malaysian consumers at large,”Benjamin Ting, executive director of media industry group for Nielsen Malaysia, said. Ting added that there is still great opportunity for radio broadcasters to engage with their audience as the power of radio extends across all major demographics and ethnicities.The Nielsen RAM Survey is conducted twice a year in collaboration with participating radio broadcasters to provide the industry with radio listening measurement. The study is based on individual quarter-hour diaries completed by a representative sample of 3,000 individuals in Peninsular Malaysia.