Where, Oh Where, Did The Listeners Go?

Michael Hedges January 23, 2013 Follow on Twitter

Audience listening levels, over time, indicate more than simply the health of the radio sector. Big, well-financed channels with wide distribution become and remain market leaders. But time is not always good to market leaders. Listeners like change, sometimes.

Radio in Switzerland appears rather one-sided with regional channels of public broadcaster SSR-SRG always topping the audience surveys. That has not changed, according to the PublicaData/MediaPulse report for the second half 2012 (January 21). Inside the three language regions it’s a bit more interesting.

In each language region the public broadcaster’s main channels dominate the surveys. General interest channels SFR1 (Swiss-German), RSR La Premiere (French) and Rete Uno (Italian) always show the power of big staff, big marketing and generally being big-time. There is no threat from private local broadcasters.

But SFR1 and RSR La Premiere have dropped to their lowest regional market shares in years; 32.4% markets share for SFR1, down from 33.6% one year on and 37.9% market share for La Premiere, down from 39.5%. Rete Uno, however, posted 48.4% markets share, up from 47.4%.

Public radio youth channels were up and down. SFR3 posted 17.0% market, no change year on year. Couleur 3 (French) had its best showing in years, 7.5% market share, up from 6.9%. Rete Tre was down slightly to 17.4% from 17.8%.

Other public radio channels with different program profiles made gains. SFR Musikwelle – the Swiss-German folk music channel – posted its best market share in, like, forever – 5.5% up from 4.8%. Option Musique (French) rose to 8.5% from 7.2% one year on. Both channels changed distribution over the last two years, dropping AM/MW for digital platforms.

Main regional public radio channels, taken in aggregate, failed to raise market share. SFR (Swiss German) channels were lower, 60.1% from 60.6% year on year. RSR channels were off slightly to 57.0% from 57.1%. Rete (Italian) channels were unchanged at 70.5%. However, adding in the various national, largely digital, channels, the SSR-SRG market share dropped in the Italian and Swiss German regions and gained in the French region.

Private local stations also had mixed results regionally. In the Italian region the combined market share for private local stations jumped to 11.5% from 10.5%, led by Radio 3i, and foreign private stations, largely from Italy, gaining slightly. Private local stations in the Swiss German region, on aggregate, posted their highest market share ever, 30.3% from 29.8%, with foreign stations from Germany and Liechtenstein gaining very slightly. Dropping market share, taken together, were the private local station in the French region, down to 23.6% from 24.0% year on year. Two stations largely serving the Geneva-Lausanne area – One FM and Rouge FM – posted significant losses; 2.0% from 2.4% for One FM and 3.1% from 3.6% for Rouge FM. Foreign station’s market share in the French region, largely from France, dropped slightly.

A new station made its first appearance on the Swiss ratings charts. It’s called GRRIF and positioned south of Basel and north of Lausanne with a ton of FM frequencies plus cable and internet. GRRIF has been on the air in French with a rather eclectic music mix since March 2012. The station showed 0.3% market share in the French region survey and was, at least, noted in the Swiss-German region survey.

Overall radio audience penetration in Switzerland is among the highest in Europe. But listening in the French region dropped to 84.0% from 85.6% one year on with time spent listening down to 108.7 daily minutes from 114.6. Audience penetration in the Swiss-German region was down to 87.9% from 88.8% and time spent listening down to 124.5 daily minutes from 127.7. And, too, listening was down in the Italian region to 86.8% from 87.7% one year on with time spent listening down to 120 daily minutes from 123.4.

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