Audience Research

Trust research

What we did

Every year RNZ’s Value Indices survey tracks our performance against the RNZ Charter and our strategy. As part of this work, we ask a question on trust.  

Last year our trust metric improved five points to 49% of respondents agreeing that RNZ is an organisation you can trust, with those disagreeing reducing three points to 28%. The remainder were either neutral (16%) or didn’t know (7%).

As well as asking this broad question on trust, last year we took the opportunity to ask a series of other questions in relation to trust to deepen our understanding of the issue.

Why we did it

As a publicly funded media organisation we are aware of how we are trusted by many New Zealanders for their diet of news and information. While RNZ is the most trusted media outlet in New Zealand (AUT’s Trust in News in Aotearoa New Zealand 2025 report) and we enjoy a trust level above the international average, trust in media generally has declined both globally and in New Zealand. We believe all media organisations, but especially public media organisations, have a role to play in understanding the causes of the decline in trust in media and should take action to reverse this where we can.

What we found

Below are two of the main questions we asked in relation to trust.

The answers are represented as a treemap chart – this provides the percentage of responses relative to each other, much like a pie chart. The colours of each box reflect groups of themes with yellow relating to the tone and treatment of content, red relating to the truthful veracity of content, green relating to other aspects of content and blue relating to enduring qualities of content providers.

Respondents felt that ‘trust in media is broken’ due to fake news, misinformation, opinion, bias, AI, social media, algorithms, clickbait and sensationalism, and government and business agendas.

What do you feel is going on with trust in media worldwide?

They felt that the most important qualities to help them trust RNZ include:

• Objectivity and Impartiality - “No bias, facts.” “Neutral journalism.”
• Accuracy and Reliability - “Correct information.” “Accuracy in reporting without twisting things.
• Transparency and Openness - “Transparency and integrity within their business.” 
• Quality and Reputation - “Sticks to high standards.”
• Takes care with reporting - “Is relevant and relatable.”  “Responds to feedback”, “Verifies facts.
• Presentation/Delivery “Presents more than one perspective”, “Represents people from my community fairly.”

What do you feel is RNZ’s role in relation to trust? 

How we’ve interpreted the results

• We need to be explicit about our journalistic promise.
• Process is important.
• Standards, and transparency with audiences about those standards, matter.
• We need also to be clear with RNZ staff about their role in maintaining and increasing trust.

Trust initiatives in action – what we’ve done so far

• All 22 recommendations of the Independent External Review of RNZ Editorial Processes have been implemented. This includes appointing a Director of Editorial Quality and Training – Jane Patterson.
• RNZ has introduced a new board sub-committee focused on editorial policy and quality, ensuring the deeper focus on our editorial standards continues.
• The complaints and feedback section of RNZ’s website has been revamped and now includes a public tracker of significant corrections or clarifications to stories.
•  RNZ has committed to completing at least one proactive review of an aspect of its editorial policy each year and making the findings public. The first review was recently published.
• We’ve published RNZ’s AI principles to make clear where we stand on this emerging technology and the processes we have in place to ensure we uphold trust and are acting in a way that is consistent with RNZ’s Charter.
•  RNZ has joined Project Origin an initiative between news organisation such as the BBC and New York Times and Microsoft to develop a media provenance tracking process that will authenticate legitimate news stories.

What’s next

• Shortly we are introducing biographies for all RNZ writers. This allows our audience to learn more about the name on the byline and understand what stories our journalists cover and why.
• We are also introducing story summaries on digital stories.
• You can expect to see more of RNZ in its role as a lifeline utility, including providing a range of information about emergencies and how to prepare.
• And we have committed as a public media organisation to doing more about explaining our editorial processes and how they are applied. Watch out for written pieces and videos that will effectively take you inside the newsroom.
• Funding scholarships for journalism students as part of our 100^th anniversary.
• Working on how we can expand our sharing of content and investment in regional journalism.
• Looking ahead RNZ is planning further research with audiences to develop a model of trust that will enable RNZ to monitor factors that drive trust, and prioritise initiatives to improve trust.

 

RNZ audiences

Audience update - 26 November 2024

RNZ is engaging with a record 80% of New Zealanders aged 18-plus with its content a month.* 

Other results from RNZ’s survey of audiences show over three quarters of New Zealanders (76%) believe it's important for New Zealand to have a public broadcaster (up from 69% in 2023), and trust in RNZ remains steady at 49% (same as the last survey in August 2024 and up from 44% in 2023).* 

More than 1.42 million New Zealanders visited rnz.co.nz last month (up from 973,000 in October 2023) and the time spent on the website has increased to over 40 minutes, more than double last year’s average engagement. RNZ was also increasing its use of video on social media and early results are promising with monthly video views up 159% on 2023.

*Verian (formerly Kantar Public) Value Indices survey was conducted between 31 October and 13 November 2024.

Live Radio Listening - GfK Survey 3 2024 results

Results in live radio, measured through the GfK Commercial Radio Survey show little change in market share with RNZ’s combined share (RNZ National and RNZ Concert) for Survey 3 2024 at 11.6% compared to 11.7% from the last survey.

RNZ National’s audience 10+ is 489,600 in a typical week (494,500 in the last survey) 

RNZ Concert’s audience 10+ is 156,000 in a typical week (178,200 in the last survey).   

The core audience was listening for longer with an increase of average time spent listening for both RNZ National (+13mins) and RNZ Concert (+41 mins).

There was also audience growth for both Morning Report and Saturday Morning and in the crucial Auckland market. 

Definitions: - Cumulative audience is the number of different listeners to a station over a week. 

*Station share is the percentage of all radio listening that is done to a station over a week; it takes into account the number of people listening and how long they listen. (Station shares cannot be compared with Total NZ - Commercial Survey results, as the commercial share figures are based on commercial radio stations only, whereas the shares reported here are based on listening to all radio stations.)

Source: GfK Radio Audience Measurements, All Radio Stations, Total New Zealand - RNZ - Survey 3/2024, All 10+, Mon-Sun 12mn-12mn, Cume and Share %. Survey 3 2024 is conducted between 11 August -2 November.

Audience update - 29 August 2024

RNZ releases new audience data that shows overall audiences are higher than ever before with 77% of New Zealanders 18-plus accessing its content a month.*

That is up 2.6% on a year ago and reflects audiences across broadcast, digital and social platforms and via RNZ’s 65 content partners which syndicate RNZ content. The result means RNZ is well on its way to its target of reaching 80% of New Zealanders by 2027.

Rnz.co.nz has been a major contributor to the growth. Visitors to the website have risen more than 60% to a record 1.4m in July. RNZ measures its overall audience through its regular Value Indices Survey. The survey showed the majority of New Zealanders access RNZ content on multiple platforms (51%) with only 2% accessing RNZ solely through broadcast radio.

Live Radio Listening - GfK Survey 2 2024 results

The GfK Survey 2 results showed a decreased for RNZ’s radio audience.

In a typical week in Survey 2 2024, 595,700, New Zealanders aged 10+ listen to RNZ National, and RNZ Concert. (639,600 in the last survey). 

RNZ National’s audience 10+ is 494,500 in a typical week (529,800 in the last survey).  

RNZ Concert’s audience 10+ is 178,200 in a typical week (184,500 in the last survey).   

These results have seen RNZ’s market share drop slightly from 12.5% to 11.7%.   

Verian (Formerly Kantar Public) Value Indices FY23/24 results

Other results from the Verian (formerly Kantar Public) Value Indices survey show 73% of New Zealanders agree it’s important to have a public service broadcaster, compared with 69% a year ago and 62% believe that RNZ provides a valuable service, up from 58% a year ago.   

Trust in RNZ also continues to grow with 49% agreeing that RNZ is an organisation you can trust, up from 45% a year ago.   

Definitions: - Cumulative audience is the number of different listeners to a station over a week. 

*Station share is the percentage of all radio listening that is done to a station over a week; it takes into account the number of people listening and how long they listen. (Station shares cannot be compared with Total NZ - Commercial Survey results, as the commercial share figures are based on commercial radio stations only, whereas the shares reported here are based on listening to all radio stations.)

Source: GfK Radio Audience Measurements, All Radio Stations, Total New Zealand - RNZ - Survey 2/2024, All 10+, Mon-Sun 12mn-12mn, Cume and Share %. Survey 2 2024 is conducted between 12 May-3 August. 

Live Radio Listening - GfK Survey 1 2024 results

In a typical week in Survey 1 2024, 639,600 New Zealanders aged 10+ listen to RNZ National, and RNZ Concert. This is a slight increase from the last survey (634,800). 

RNZ National’s audience 10+ is 529,800 in a typical week (532,200 in the last survey)  

We saw an increase in RNZ Concert listeners in Survey 1 2024. In a typical week 184,500 New Zealanders aged 10+ listen to RNZ Concert (174,800 in the last survey)  

Market share remains steady for RNZ in this survey. The total share across RNZ National and Concert is 12.5% (12.6% in the last survey) 

The number of listeners to all radio across Aotearoa is 3,648,100 (3,642,600 in the last survey). Source: GfK Survey 1 2024,                               

Definitions: - Cumulative audience is the number of different listeners to a station over a week. 

*Station share is the percentage of all radio listening that is done to a station over a week; it takes into account the number of people listening and how long they listen. (Station shares cannot be compared with Total NZ - Commercial Survey results, as the commercial share figures are based on commercial radio stations only, whereas the shares reported here are based on listening to all radio stations.)

Source: GfK Radio Audience Measurements, All Radio Stations, Total New Zealand - RNZ - Survey 1/2024, All 10+, Mon-Sun 12mn-12mn, Cume and Share %. Survey 1 2024 is conducted between 11 February and 4 May.

Verian (formerly Kantar Public)- Value Indices survey results 

Verian (formerly Kantar Public) Value Indices survey was conducted between 29 April and 8 May 2024, with a sample of 1,500 New Zealanders aged 18 or over. 

It showed that 74% of New Zealanders agree it’s important to have a public service broadcaster, a 5 percentage point increase from when we last surveyed in 2023. 

New Zealanders are also more aware of RNZ, with 84% aware of the organisation, up from 79% in 2023.  And there was an increase in trust in RNZ, from 44% last year to 47% this year.  

More New Zealanders agree that RNZ provides a valuable service, increasing from 54% to 61% - the highest agreement to that question since the survey in its current form began in 2018. There were also small increases in all the questions we asked around RNZ’s content.  

Podcast Audiences

Between January to March 2024 we saw 6,667,330 downloads on RNZ and external podcast platforms.

Online Audiences

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Statement of Performance

Please refer to our Annual Report 2022/2023 for our Statement of Performance for the year ended 30 June 2023.

Trust in News Report

Two independent reports* highlight the value of RNZ as an independent, non-commercial media organisation.

In a time when trust in media is trending down, these results are a reminder of the importance of strong, independent public media.

* Myllylahti, M. & Treadwell, G. (2024). Trust in news in Aotearoa New Zealand 2024. AUT research centre for Journalism, Media and Democracy (JMAD). Value Indices (2023) Kantar Public commissioned by RNZ.

Here is the Trust in News in New Zealand 2024 report.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Why does RNZ carry out research?

It is important for RNZ to know how many people are using its services and how well they think RNZ performs against its Charter.

RNZ is a tax-payer funded public service broadcaster established under the Radio New Zealand Act.  RNZ’s Charter clearly defines the objectives to be achieved and services to be provided by the broadcaster. For example the Charter requires RNZ to commission research among a representative selection of the general public. Each year radio surveys are carried out among New Zealanders.

How are the radio surveys conducted?

In 2016 RNZ and the commercial stations came together to use one system for radio measurement in New Zealand. The Radio Broadcasters Association (RBA) has commissioned the research company GfK to run radio audience measurements in New Zealand from 2016 for five years. 

The surveys run for much of the year, and the people surveyed reflect the population distribution based on the latest Statistics New Zealand information.

Results are at various levels, for example Total New Zealand for nationwide coverage, as well as results for the three main metropolitan cities.

Respondents complete a Radio Diary (hard copy or online) in which they record their radio listening in any given quarter hour over the period of a week. They are also asked demographic questions and other questions about their media habits.

Much of the resulting information appears in Radio New Zealand’s Annual Report.