Understanding the listening habits of Malaysians

(Marketingmagazine.com.my) –Radio listenership in Peninsular Malaysia remains high, with nearly the whole population (97%) or 19.9 million people aged 10 years and above listening in weekly. Based on findings from the latest wave of GfK’s Radio Audience Measurement study, each listener spends an average of nearly 15 hours a week tuning in to the radio.

Compared to the findings of the same survey conducted earlier this year, average weekly time spent listening to radio remains stable at 15 hours and the medium is now reaching over 36,000 more listeners.

Listeners aged 50 years and above continue to be the most avid home radio listener, spending around 13 hours a week listening in from their home, while those 30-39 make up the highest proportion of car radio listeners—tuning in for 8 hours on a weekly average from their vehicle.

The region with the most concentrated radio listeners across Peninsular Malaysia is the Central region, where 7.3 million listeners tune in from. Among them, 4.8 million are from Selangor, 1.5 million from Kuala Lumpur and 922,000 from Negeri Sembilan. The Northern region enjoys the second highest radio reach with its 5.4 million listeners, majority of whom come from Perak (2.0 million listeners). Meanwhile, another 3.6 million tune in from the Southern and East Coast region.

“Results of the GfK study evidently shows that radio plays a major role in the lives of Malaysians, and this augers well for the radio industry in Malaysia,” highlighted Selinna Chin, Managing Director at GfK in Malaysia. “A large proportion of people in the country still consumes radio heavily and allows this medium to play a major role in their daily lives wherever they go,” concluded Selinna.

GfK’s radio ratings survey is conducted among 6,000 unique individuals aged 10 years and above in which 4,800 of them record their radio listening habits on paper and 1,200 from online panel uses the electronic diaries to record their radio listening for a week. The most recent Malaysian survey was conducted from July 24 to September 3.

Commercial Radio Malaysia is the association of commercial radio operators in the country. In March 2016, GfK was appointed as their official research partner to provide radio audience measurement (RAM) in Malaysia.

This contract signals the return to a single radio rating system for the Malaysian market.