German Radio Audience Shrinks

Michael Hedges July 25, 2005

The second phase of the German Media Analyse radio audience survey showed lower audience levels but few other surprises

Privately owned German stations lost 196,000 listeners, now totaling 29,470,000. The sixty public radio channels increased their aggregate audience, Monday through Friday, to 35,446,000, 14,000 more than the January-April figures.

German radio listeners spend on average 206 minutes daily with radio, a minute decline from the previous survey. More men than women listen to radio daily, 83.5% vs. 79.8%, and men listen considerably longer, 220 minutes per day vs. 193 minutes for women. Over 75% listen more than 150 minutes per day.

Radio NRW, a private network of local stations in Nordrhein-Westfalen, continues to deliver more audience than other, normally single, channels in Germany. Though dropping slightly in total, Radio NRW reached 1,419,000 listeners in the ma Radio 2005 II survey against 1,458,000 in the previous ma Radio 2005 I among listeners 14 years and older, Monday through Friday, 0600-1800.

Two channels of public broadcaster Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) – also competing for listeners in Nordrhein-Westfalen – were among the top five German radio channels. WDR4 increased to 988,000 daily listeners from 969,000 and youth channel EINS Live gathered 783,000, though dropping slightly from the previous survey. WDR channels reach 55.4% of listeners in Nordrhein-Westfalen.

Das Hit Radio 100.5, a privately owned Nordrhein-Westfalen station not associated with the NRW network, increased 40% to 42,000 listeners.

Südwestrundfunk (SWR) also made significant gains in Baden-Württemberg and Rheinland-Pflaz. Main channel SWR3 ranks number 3 in all of Germany with 906,000 listeners, down slightly from 925,000 in the previous period. SWR1, with separate channels for Baden-Württemberg and Rheinland-Pflaz, increased 14.1% in Rheinland-Pflaz and 6.8% in Baden-Württemberg.

Hit FM FFH held its number 1 position in Hessen, though dropping total daily audience to 597,000 from 617,000 in 2004.

Youth stations in Hessen continue to battle, FFH-owned Planet Radio increased to 79,000 daily listeners from 69,000 in 2004 while You FM, the youth channel of public broadcaster Hessen Rundfunk (HR) increased to 34,000 listeners from 26,000 and Murdoch-owned SkyRadio increased to 26,000 from 20,000 listeners. SkyRadio changed format and branding – now SuperHits – in January. A significant contribution to the increase came from the morning show, Lennert & Co.

Other HR radio channels fared less well. Pop channel HR3 dropped to 299,000 listeners from 319,000 and HR4 dropped to 297,000 from 350,000 listeners. HR1, relaunched last September, reached 70,000 listeners, down from 86,000. 

Antenna Bayern continued its rebound, increasing to 847,000 listeners from 789,000 in the previous period, a 7.4% gain. The station is the most listened to single private channel in Germany and long time winner covering the entire state of Bavaria. Local Munich stations also gained: Radio Charivari, 60% to 40,000 listeners, Energy 93.3, 46.9% to 47,000 listeners, Radio Gong, 15% to 92,000 listeners and Rock Antenna, 21.7% to 28,000 listeners. Rock Antenna is owned by Antenna Bavaria.

The ma Radio 2005 II survey of 57, 533 interviews was taken between January 9th and April 25th and released in combination with the September-December 2004 survey. Data was released jointly by sales houses RMS and ARD July 19th