{"id":437825,"date":"2026-05-21T05:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T05:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/437825\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T05:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T05:08:11","slug":"media-insider-mike-hosking-and-newstalk-zb-snare-biggest-audience-in-almost-three-years-the-breeze-is-top-music-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/437825\/","title":{"rendered":"Media Insider: Mike Hosking and Newstalk ZB snare biggest audience in almost three years; The Breeze is top music station"},"content":{"rendered":"

The GFK numbers released today confirm ZB as the country\u2019s biggest commercial radio station, followed by MediaWorks\u2019 The Breeze as the top music station.<\/p>\n

ZB\u2019s increase comes during a renewed battle for morning news audiences, with a refreshed RNZ Morning Report and TVNZ Breakfast, and the expansion of the Herald\u2019s Ryan Bridge show to ThreeNow and, shortly, Three\u2019s linear channel. <\/p>\n

TVNZ and the Herald have also launched half-hour business shows.<\/p>\n

RNZ, which had a cumulative audience of 500,300 at the end of 2025, has itself enjoyed audience increases over the past two surveys.<\/p>\n

It will likely be buoyed by ZB\u2019s result in the sense that Kiwis appear to be engaging more heavily in the news agenda, with a pending election and turmoil in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

RNZ will also be waiting keenly to see whether its audio changes are helping to continue its audience momentum.<\/p>\n

\"MikeMike Hosking hosts Newstalk ZB’s breakfast show and John Campbell is Morning Report co-host, alongside Ingrid Hipkiss. Illustration \/ Oliver Rusden; Photos: NZME, RNZ<\/p>\n

RNZ\u2019s Morning Report has been broadcasting sharper, shorter interviews, but the biggest change has been behind the microphone.<\/p>\n

Broadcaster John Campbell started as Morning Report co-host on April 13. He has been in the hot seat for three weeks of a rolling 48-week ratings period – we won\u2019t start seeing the impact of his arrival until later survey results.*<\/p>\n

*RNZ has been in touch to point out that the full impact of the change in presenter won\u2019t be known until a full 48-week rolling sample is complete \u2013 by survey 2 2027. Results for metro areas will be able to be measured by survey 3, 2026. This story has been updated and corrected to reflect this.<\/p>\n

Music radio battle<\/p>\n

When it comes to commercial share, ZB and MediaWorks\u2019 The Breeze continue to dominate. ZB\u2019s overall share is 14.4 (down 0.4), and The Breeze is 9.5 (no change).<\/p>\n

Three other MediaWorks music stations, The Rock (7.9), More FM (7.1), and Breeze Classic (6.5), fill out the rest of the top five stations by commercial share.<\/p>\n

At breakfast, Hosking\u2019s commercial share is 20.4 (up 0.7) and second-placed The Breeze is 8.7 (down 0.2).<\/p>\n

The Breeze, Mediaworks\u2019 The Edge, NZME\u2019s The Hits and ZB all recorded cumulative audience increases of more than 50,000 people. <\/p>\n

NZME chief audio officer Jason Winstanley said he was proud of the ZB result, and of the NZME results overall.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Newstalk ZB to record its strongest result in recent times is a reminder of what the station means to Kiwis. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re currently in one of the most news-intensive periods in recent memory with major geopolitical events, a volatile global environment and an upcoming New Zealand general election. We know that people turn to well-known and trusted voices in times like these …\u201d<\/p>\n

Top 10 stations by audience<\/p>\n

Newstalk ZB 657,400 The Breeze 616,000More FM 518,100The Edge 504,600The Rock 494,200ZM 476,000The Hits 461,200Mai FM 434,500The Sound 331,700Breeze Classic 279,300<\/p>\n

Top 10 stations by share (mix of audience and time spent listening)<\/p>\n

Newstalk ZB 14.4The Breeze 9.5The Rock 7.9More FM 7.1Breeze Classic 6.5Mai FM 5.9<\/p>\n

And then in 7th equal place: The Hits and The Sound 5.4; 9th: Coast 5.3 and 10th: ZM 5.1<\/p>\n

Newstalk ZB is owned by NZME, publisher of the NZ Herald.<\/p>\n

Industry reaction<\/p>\n

Radio industry leaders said in a joint statement that today\u2019s results had been \u201chighly anticipated\u201d. They celebrated a 5% increase in cumulative commercial radio audience overall, to 3.496 million listeners per week.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Radio Bureau chief executive Al Jamison. Photo \/ Michael Craig<\/p>\n

The Radio Bureau CEO Alistair Jamison said: \u201cLinear radio consistently reaches more than 70% of NZ every week, and with 43% of those listeners also consuming a podcast on a weekly basis, we are continuing to grow our audience opportunities…\u201d<\/p>\n

NZME chief executive Michael Boggs noted strong growth among younger demographics: \u201c…11% among 10\u201324 year olds and 10% in the 18\u201339 age group. Youth are also the heaviest consumers of podcasts and digital audio, meaning the next generation is already deeply engaged with audio platforms and content. That\u2019s a really exciting signal…”<\/p>\n

MediaWorks chief executive Wendy Palmer said: \u201cAudio continues to deliver for both audiences and advertisers across New Zealand. Driving real business outcomes has always been the focus for audio.\u201d<\/p>\n

Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand\u2019s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME, including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The GFK numbers released today confirm ZB as the country\u2019s biggest commercial radio station, followed by MediaWorks\u2019 The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":437826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3225,15408,95,2991,6326,7054,103114,3088,6097,154052,305,42,196324,12022,78,2936,185,23902,700,1073,1456,157,43,51026,3591,4965,10465,13181,45,154063,133447,13655,223,1529,25447,1865,3010,40,38,41,39,102,1530,103112],"class_list":["post-437825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-according","tag-almost","tag-and","tag-audience","tag-biggest","tag-breakfast","tag-breeze","tag-commercial","tag-down","tag-gauntlet","tag-have","tag-headlines","tag-hosking","tag-host","tag-in","tag-insider","tag-is","tag-jump","tag-latest","tag-media","tag-mike","tag-music","tag-news","tag-newstalk","tag-numbers","tag-radio","tag-ratings","tag-released","tag-rnz","tag-sizeable","tag-snare","tag-station","tag-the","tag-three","tag-thrown","tag-today","tag-top","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-with","tag-years","tag-zb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}