Thousands nationwide turn off RNZ radio programmes
Tuesday, 27 May 2025
Thousands of listeners are turning off Radio New Zealand’s live radio programmes, with a new survey showing that the nationwide listenership of Morning Report, Nine to Noon, Checkpoint and Saturday Morning is falling.
Saturday Morning has had the biggest percentage fall the latest GfK Radio Audience Measurements, losing 10.6% of its listeners or 21,300 since the last survey in 2024.
The first survey for 2025 is the second since Mihingarangi Forbes joined Susie Ferguson on a refreshed Saturday Morning programme in late August, almost a year after long-time host Kim Hill signed off.
RNZ’s flagship news programme Morning Report lost 22,100 listeners - or 6.2% of its audience- around the country to now have 333,200 listeners in a typical week.
The weekday current affairs show Nine to Noon shed 19,400 listeners - 7.5% of its audience - to have a weekly listenership of 238,800.
The drivetime news show Checkpoint has had the smallest drop in audience numbers of just 1.5% or 3,100 listeners to have a total weekly audience of 204,400.
Across the country, Christchurch was the only market where audience numbers didn’t fall, with a notable 31% boost in Checkpoint numbers. The only exception is a 2.4% drop in Christchurch listeners for Saturday Morning.
Overall, RNZ National has 467,700 listeners in a typical week and RNZ Concert 162,300. RNZ National and RNZ Concert combined have 10.6% of the market share.
The results come after RNZ copped a large funding cut in the latest budget: $18 million over four years, or $4.6m a year. That is about 7% of its current $67m allocation.
Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith said he was confident in RNZ’s ability to perform, even with less funds.
“I expect RNZ to improve audience reach, trust and transparency. I am confident the organisation can do so while operating in a period of tightened fiscal constraint.”
There is some good news for the public broadcaster: its latest Verian Research survey of 2000 New Zealanders found 79% of the country consumes RNZ material, either via its own website and radio programming or from its content sharing with other outlets like The Post and Stuff.
RNZ’s website, which earlier this year re-launched a dedicated Life section, has seen strong growth of 400,000 more visitors than in April 2024, with users spending almost twice as long on the site as last year.
Verian’s survey also found trust in the national outlet has improved to 56%, up from 49%, backing up a new Auckland University of Technology study that found RNZ is the country’s most trust news brand.
Trust has been top of mind for leaders at RNZ, in particular since mid-2023 when it was discovered an online journalist had been making pro-Russia edits in international news copy for years, unchecked.
An independent panel was appointed to investigate. In its findings, it called for greater oversight and enforcement of standards across the newsroom’s online and radio divisions, including merging the two, which Chief Executive Paul Thompson accepted.
“RNZ will adopt the recommendations as soon as possible and will report back to the public on our progress,” he said at the time.
RNZ has been approached for comment about the fall in audience numbers.
*CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said this was the first survey since Saturday Morning went to two presenters. It is the second. Also RNZ’s overall market share is 10.6% and trust in the public broadcaster is now 56%, not up 49%. (Amended Friday, May 30, 2025. 1.18pm)