SmoothFM's performance has been “the real highlight” for Nova Entertainment's first rating results of 2015, but can it top the ratings? Nova's group programme director Paul Jackson is confident that “it's going to happen”.
In today's ratings the station achieved record accumulation in both Sydney and Melbourne, with 700,000 listeners and 729,000 listeners respectively. SmoothFM also had a 0.7 percentage point boost in total Sydney audience ratings, with 7.3% audience share. In Melbourne, in dropped 0.2 percentage points but still held the middle of the pack with 7.2% audience share.
Jackson said the result showed that Smooth is “in great shape overall” but said given the station, which was only launched in 2012, is still in discovery phase, its trajectory can only go up.
“That's why you see the cume [cumulative audience] suddenly go up in moments like that because it's all about the next drop of awareness that has happened,” Jackson said.
“The whole time – right from when I started Smooth - I said this will be the number one radio station. It may take two, three, four, even five years – who knows – but it's building towards getting there.
“It's going to happen.”
Jackson said he attributes part of the boost in ratings to the content the station produced over the Christmas break, when most other stations “weren't doing very much”. He said that it helps to keep the momentum rolling for the station and tends to result in people sticking around during peak season.
In terms of competition, Jackson said Melbourne was going to be the market to watch, particularly in drive. The network recently moved COO Lou Higgins to the city centre in order to build its focus in the state.
Jackson also pointed to how close the Melbourne market is in terms of total audience share, with less than half a percentage point separating SmoothFM from the top FM stations.
“Smooth is poised beautifully in Melbourne to maybe take that next leap and that next leap doesn't have to be too big to get on top,” he said.
“That's really the primary reason for Melbourne being a key focus for us.”
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