Malaysia: Astro Radio listener reach grows to 15.6 million

The GfK Radio Audience Measurement Survey (RAM) Wave 2, 2021 revealed a new high for Malaysian radio as it reached a high of almost 96% of individuals in Peninsular Malaysia, equivalent to 21.1 million weekly radio listeners, reflecting an increase of 469,000.

From this, Astro Radio grew its market share to 15.6 million weekly listeners or 74% of 21.1 million available radio listeners, cementing its position as the radio operator with the highest number of listeners locally.

Astro Radio’s increased reach in radio listenership was made possible by 312.6 million monthly average digital and video streams, 24.1 million social media followers, and 103 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 continued to achieve Malaysia’s highest weekly reach amongst young Malay listeners between the ages of 10 to 29, with 2.9 million listeners.
  • SINAR remained Malaysia’s second most-listened-to brand with a weekly listenership of 4.6 million.
  • GEGAR, Malaysia’s No. 1 radio brand in the East Coast reached 2.3 million weekly listeners.
  • With an increase to 2.6 million weekly listeners, HITZ also achieved the highest ‘Exclusive Audience’ for English brands at 328,000 listeners, the Highest Breakfast for English brands with 1.2 million listeners and the Highest Drive for English brands with 1.3 million listeners.
  • MIX recorded an increase to 1.2 million weekly listeners, with the Breakfast and Drive segment increasing to 519,000 listeners and 584,000 listeners respectively, which marks increases of almost 115,000 (Breakfast) and 150,000 (Drive).
  • LITE saw an increase in its weekly listeners to 937,000 with its Drive segment now reaching 432,000 listeners and an increase in Exclusive Audience to 108,000 listeners.
  • Weekly listenership on MY increased by 300,000 growing to 2.5 million, while the Breakfast and Drive segments achieved the highest number of listeners for Chinese brands with 1.6million for each of the segments.
  • RAAGA increased its weekly listeners to 1.5 million. This increase was also reflected in the Breakfast segment with a high of 1 million listeners, and an increase of more than 120,000 in the Drive segment to 936,000 listeners. RAAGA also recorded an increase in Exclusive Audience by 43,000 to 622,000.

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. 20 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 2 2021 | Facebook Page Reach: Facebook Insights (July – Sept 2021) | Digital Streams: Radioactive (July – Sept 2021) | Website Unique Visitors/Page Views: Google Analytics (July – Sept 2021) | Video Views: Facebook Creator Studio, CrowdTangle, YouTube (July – Sept 2021) | Total Social Media Followers: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube (July – Sept 2021)

This story first appeared on RadioInfo.asia