The Breeze radio station has proven itself as the most popular music station in New Zealand over the past six months while Kiwi listeners have been enduring the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the latest GfK commercial radio survey results, The Breeze has increased its listenership across the week by 38,500 listeners, giving it a national audience of 622,000.
Also celebrating substantial growth this year is Mai FM, with its national audience leaping by 33,500. The Mai Morning Crew with Nickson, Tegan and Jordan has secured the top spot as the leading music breakfast show in Auckland.
Meanwhile, Magic's increase in share has seen the station edge out its commercial talk competitor Newstalk ZB in both the morning and afternoon weekday slots. The music and talk stations have reached their highest ever listenership overall after increasing their audience by over 30,000.
MediaWorks Director of Content Leon Wratt says it's positive to see the commercial radio landscape continuing to thrive amid such a difficult year.
"We're very pleased to see such a strong result for radio despite the ongoing disruption of Covid-19," Wratt said in a statement.
"With 84 percent of the total population tuning into radio every week, the platform continues to show its strength across the country."
MediaWorks, which also owns Newshub, has seven of the top ten commercial radio stations in the country with The Breeze, The Edge, More FM, Mai FM, Magic, The Rock and The Sound, according to the latest results.
In the digital realm, MediaWorks' streaming app Rova has seen a huge surge in podcast listenership, with downloads up 92 percent on last year's numbers, and a 93 percent increase in the uptake of the curated playlists available from Rova Music+ stations.
During the month of September alone, over 152,000 Kiwis streamed around 4.4 million hours of radio via the app.
The full GfK Total New Zealand Commercial Radio Survey can be read on its official website.
