Radio New Zealand has ended the year on a high, with the strongest audience levels of 2021 across radio and digital channels.
RNZ has continued to have an outstanding showing at local and international awards on all platforms, and RNZ’s radical sharing strategy continues to break new ground with Proof, a documentary produced in-house at RNZ by Guyon Espiner and Claire Eastham-Farrelly, screening on both RNZ.co.nz and TVNZ last month and a new content-sharing partnership with Mediaworks that has just been signed.
Chief Executive and Editor-in-Chief Paul Thompson says that it’s great to wrap up 2021 with strong audience numbers on air and online.
“Our audiences on all platforms are growing strongly and are highly engaged with RNZ’s high quality, trusted public media content,” he said.
“There are so many things for our team to be proud of. Excellent numbers, recognition for the quality of our work in New Zealand and overseas, and the consistent, trusted public media content that’s so important at any time, but especially during times of crisis.”
Radio
RNZ’s radio stations have reached their highest audience levels of the year. Latest GfK survey results show that 626,700 New Zealanders typically tune in to RNZ National each week, an increase of 37,100 listeners since the previous survey and its highest audience of 2021.
The growth was also reflected in numbers across all shows.
Each week 235,500 New Zealanders typically tune into RNZ Concert, 25,200 more listeners than recorded in the previous survey, and up 62,200 from the final survey of 2019.
Website/App
More New Zealanders than ever are engaging with news, video, podcasts and other content on the RNZ website. In October, 1,366,000 New Zealanders aged 15+ visited RNZ.co.nz, up from 1,211,000 in September, and more than three times the audience of 417,000 reached in January last year.
681,000 New Zealanders aged 25-54 accessed RNZ.co.nz, up from 557,000 in September and a fivefold increase since the start of 2020.
Usage of the RNZ app has also reached an all-time high. Numbers have increased considerably since Aotearoa moved into lockdown level 4 and regional restrictions were introduced.
During this period app user numbers grew to 125,214 users per week, up 18% compared to the same period last year.