Singapore Press Holdings' (SPH) five radio stations reached their biggest-ever audience in the first half of 2018, as its two newly-added frequencies quickly gained loyal followings.
More than 600,000 people tuned in digitally to at least one of the media giant's radio stations in May 2018, through either the SPH Radio app or website. This represents a rise of more than 40 per cent from December 2017, a month before SPH launched two new stations – 96.3好FM and MONEY FM 89.3 – to add to its three existing stations: Kiss92, UFM100.3 and ONE FM 91.3.
SPH's radio stations also attracted the most engaged audiences, with Kiss92 and ONE FM 91.3 emerging tops in total time spent listening, according to the results of a separate radio survey released by Nielsen today. Listeners tuned in to Kiss92 and ONE FM 91.3 for an average of 5 hours 41 minutes and 5 hours 40 minutes respectively during the survey period of Mar 19 and May 13, compared to the average of 4 hours 21 minutes for English stations.
New station 96.3好FM debuted in the Nielsen study as the Chinese station with the second-longest time spent listening. Audiences spent 11 hours 5 minutes tuned in during the survey period, compared to the average of 9 hours 56 minutes for Chinese stations.
Sim Hong Huat, General Manager of SPH Radio, said: “We are delighted with the overall results across all five Radio stations and I am glad to have been receiving positive feedback on the two new stations, MONEY FM 89.3 and 96.3好FM.”
Both of SPH's new stations, 96.3好FM and MONEY FM 89.3, surpassed expectations in their first five months of operations. 96.3好FM, which was launched on 8 January 2018, reached well over 110,000 digital listeners in May 2018. The infotainment station takes listeners down memory lane with familiar Mandarin pop tunes and local Xinyao music from the 80s and 90s, alongside frequent news insights on topics such as lifestyle, healthcare and finance/wealth planning.
MONEY FM 89.3, Singapore's first and only business & personal finance radio station in English, reached more than 50,000 digital listeners upon its debut. The station was launched on 29 January 2018 to provide relevant and on-the-go information to help its audience to always be on top of the happenings in Singapore and around the world.
SPH's existing stations also continued to do well. Even with the launch of 96.3好FM, Chinese station UFM100.3's digital listeners grew by 20 per cent between December 2017 and May 2018 to reach 230,000, making it SPH Radio's most popular station digitally. UFM100.3's U1000 Music Countdown in April 2018 was a massive success, with 270,000 listeners tuning in digitally that month and nearly 4,000 fans gathering at the live countdown event in Chinatown Point.
The digital listenership of Kiss92 remained stable in the same period, while ONE FM 91.3's digital audience grew 15 per cent. ONE FM 91.3's share of listenership also doubled in the first half of the year from last year, bucking the trend among English stations, according to the Nielsen survey. Best known for its morning show, Glenn and The Flying Dutchman, ONE FM 91.3 plays hit songs from the 80s and 90s.