Nova’s Brendan Taylor on Survey 5’s growth opportunities

NOVA Entertainment emerged from GfK Survey 5 with strong reach across both the Nova and Smooth networks. The Nova Network recorded 4.254 million listeners nationally, while its Breakfast line-up reached 2.353 million.

READ MORE: Nova's Brendan Taylor insists latest Breakfast survey wins are no fluke

READ MORE: Nova blows up Breakfast and Drive in a network-wide reset

Smooth also delivered one of the company’s standout results. Smooth FM 95.3 was Sydney’s outright number one station with a 13.5 per cent share and reached 1.471 million listeners, a figure NOVA Entertainment said was the largest cume recorded in Australian radio history.

The station’s More Music Breakfast Show with Bogart Torelli led Sydney FM Breakfast with a 12.2 per cent share and 727,000 listeners. Smooth FM 91.5 was also Melbourne’s number two FM station with a 10.3 per cent share, while Smooth’s DAB+ stations led their respective digital markets in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

For the Nova Network, Fitzy, Wippa & Kate remained Australia’s number one Drive show from 4pm to 6pm, recording a 10.7 per cent share and 1.403 million listeners. In Sydney, Nova 96.9’s overall share eased, but its cume grew by 58,000 to 1.286 million.

Melbourne also delivered a mixed result. Nova 100’s overall share softened, while Jase, Lauren & Clint strengthened in Breakfast to 10.8 per cent and reached 736,000 listeners. Perth remained a standout, with Nova 93.7 leading the market on a 17.6 per cent share.

Brendan Taylor, NOVA Entertainment Group Programming Director, spoke to Mediaweek about the network’s Survey 5 performance, the shift of Fitzy, Wippa & Kate into national Drive and where he sees the biggest opportunity for growth.

Sydney’s cume growth and the TSL challenge

Mediaweek: Sydney is interesting because while Nova’s share fell, cume actually grew by 58,000. Does that tell you the challenge isn’t getting people through the door, but TSL - getting people to spend longer listening to the station?

Brendan Taylor: Yeah, absolutely. I think one of Nova’s strengths is we’ve had a great connection with our audience. Our cume numbers have been really strong.

Since we made the change, particularly with Ricki-Lee & Tim in Breakfast, you want to have that cume base to build on. You want to build that engagement, build that loyalty. We want people to fall in love with the show.

But to see the cume rise, they’ve really only been on air since halfway through Survey 1, in my mind it’s still early days. To have 688,000 in cume and grow that, now it’s about converting it into loyalty, converting that into TSL and that stickiness that the guys do each day.

Why national Drive matters

Mediaweek: Moving on to Drive, with Fitzy, Wippa & Kate moving out of Breakfast and becoming a national Drive show, it was a big call and it seems to have paid off. Do you see national Drive becoming strategically as important as local Breakfast?

Brendan Taylor: From how you consume audio on your way into work versus how you consume audio after a long day at work, they’re two different propositions. Fitzy, Wippa & Kate are world-class broadcasters. They built a great fan base in Breakfast, particularly Fitzy and Wippa over nearly 15 years.

They’ve got the right style and the right tone for the drive home. It’s very competitive again. You’ve got Jonesy & Amanda right there.

So yes, it’s as competitive, but it is as important, knowing that we focus on our live offering from one o’clock. When you think about from The Joel Creasey Show all the way through to Fitzy, Wippa & Kate, that connection and engagement with the audience is really important to us.

But back to your point on Sydney Breakfast and the changes, I couldn’t be happier with the product of Ricki-Lee & Tim, considering all the changes in market. And with Drive, they’re a great Drive show.

Turning Melbourne Breakfast strength into station growth

Mediaweek: Over to Melbourne with Jase, Lauren & Clint. It was a strong result in Breakfast, but the station overall slipped a little. Do you think the strength of the Breakfast show isn’t quite translating to the rest of the station, or is there an opportunity to grow there?

Brendan Taylor: There are always opportunities to grow. Between Sarah McGilvray and myself, we obsess over these numbers, but it’s a tight battle. It’s a really competitive marketplace and it always has been.

Jase, Lauren & Clint are an exceptional show that has really settled into the Nova brand over the last two years. Cumes are extremely healthy. When you look at the gap between us and our competitors, they’re the biggest cume of any Breakfast show in the country, just ahead of Bogart Torelli in the Sydney market.

They’re a quality show, but it is competitive. Gold is a competitive Breakfast show. To have Jase, Lauren & Clint on top with that share, naturally we want to get more out of it, more listening time and that TSL, as we said earlier. But I’m ecstatic with that result.

Brisbane emerges as the biggest opportunity

Mediaweek: Across Survey 5, you’ve had strong results in Perth and Adelaide and a little softer numbers in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Across the whole network, where do you see the biggest opportunity for growth?

Brendan Taylor: We’ve got great product teams around the country. Out of Survey 5, I would say Brisbane. Brisbane is the opportunity for us to really work a little bit deeper into the product.

Again, similar to the Melbourne market, Brisbane is so competitive. You’ve got four radio stations all within three share points of each other. You’ve got to be on top of your game, doing the best content day in, day out, and having that consistency to come out on top.

It’s fair to say, and honest, we’re not where we want to be in Survey 5. But we know where we need to be and we know the path to get there.