Radio listeners are spending more time tuning in to Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) Radio stations, according to a Nielsen survey.
The stations maintained their overall share of audience in the first half of this year, with people tuning in longer each time, the half-yearly survey showed.
The survey, which was conducted between March and last month and involved 2,000 respondents, also found that Mediacorp's Class 95 and Yes 933 were the most popular English and Mandarin radio stations respectively.
SPH's analytics showed that more audiences are tuning in digitally to SPH Radio's five stations - English stations Kiss92 FM, One FM 91.3 and Money FM 89.3 as well as Chinese stations UFM100.3 and 96.3 Hao FM. Last month, more than 890,000 people tuned in digitally through either the SPH Radio app or website, a 10 per cent rise from October last year.
In line with the global trend, the number of downloads of SPH Radio stations' podcasts increased by 45 per cent across all five stations.
UFM100.3's digital listenership grew by 16 per cent and its podcast downloads doubled. It remains SPH Radio's most popular station digitally. The station's seventh U1000 Music Countdown in April drew 427,799 digital listeners and more than 4,000 fans attended the live countdown event held at Capitol Singapore's outdoor plaza.
Digital listenership for 96.3 Hao FM went up by 12 per cent.
One FM 91.3 saw a 13 per cent increase in digital listenership.
The listening time for Money FM 89.3, the first and only business and personal finance radio station in Singapore, increased by 28 per cent, while its digital listenership went up by 7 per cent.
Kiss92 FM, which will debut a new morning show on July 1 at 6am, has been active with events such as the inaugural Kiss92 Pet's Day Out in March. It saw a turnout of more than 2,000 fans and 800 pets.
Mr Sim Hong Huat, general manager of SPH Radio, said: "We anticipated the shift of audience tuning in digitally, hence we have been working hard at delivering new audio formats such as podcasts, which has been well received. These days, there is more to radio than what you hear on air. All five stations have been effectively engaging audiences on the ground and even on social media, and there will be more to come."
