Radio ratings: How the ABC lost 40% of its radio audience over the last decade
Yesterday’s final set of radio ratings for the year demonstrate an accelerating trend: The ABC is losing its radio audience to the commercial sector. In this analysis for Mumbrella Pro readers, we examine the ABC’s collapse in audience share over the last decade, across all five capital cities.
The media year really is ending. For the last time in 2025, the GfK radio ratings landed yesterday.
The ABC’s poor showing in Sydney made the biggest headlines. ABC Sydney’s weekday share fell to 5.5% in Survey 7. That was preceded by the exit of Chris Bath from the drive time slot, where she delivered a final audience share of 4.9%, a fall of 1.3 ratings points. However, for the ABC, that was nothing out of the ordinary.
It’s part of a bigger story which has been relentlessly developing in recent years, but underreported as a trend. Across the capital cities, the ABC’s five signals are now hovering around a total share of just 15% of radio listening. When it comes to broadcast radio, the ABC has lost about half its audience in the space of a decade. Contrast that with the ABC’s counterpart in the UK, the BBC, which currently has about 42% of radio listening.
In the short term it was almost all bad news. The ABC has five networks serving each capital city: Radio National, Triple M, ABC Classic, Newsradio, and its city station. Yesterday, of those 25 data points, the ABC lost share in 17, was flat in two and improved in six.
Check with ABC.. this doesn’t seem right.
The ABC’s poor showing in Sydney made the biggest headlines. ABC Sydney’s weekday share fell to 5.5% in Survey 7. That was preceded by the exit of Chris Bath from the drive time slot, where she delivered a final audience share of 4.9%, a fall of 1.3 ratings points