Mediacorp's share of radio listening in Singapore reaches 14-year high

SINGAPORE: Mediacorp’s share of radio listening in Singapore has reached a 14-year high of 86 per cent, up 2.2 percentage points from 2025, according to the latest Nielsen Radio Survey.

The broadcaster is home to eight of Singapore’s top 10 radio stations – YES 933, CLASS 95, LOVE 972, CAPITAL 958, WARNA 942, GOLD 905, 987 and OLI 968 – which reach almost 4 million listeners weekly.

Meanwhile, CNA 938 remained Singapore’s preferred news station, growing its listenership for a third consecutive year with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.4 per cent, Mediacorp said on Thursday (Jul 23).

The station recorded its highest-ever radio reach, increasing by 11.6 per cent to 307,000 listeners. The performance was led by a 40 per cent increase in reach in the key morning belt.

Mediacorp stations took the top positions across key demographics in the survey, with YES 933, CLASS 95 and LOVE 972 ranking as Singapore’s most-listened-to stations among demographics such as professionals, managers, executives and business owners, as well as parents. Among seniors aged 55 and above, CAPITAL 958 and LOVE 972 lead the way.

Across the Chinese, Malay and Indian listener segments, the top three stations are all Mediacorp brands.

For English radio, Mediacorp stations added 133,000 listeners to reach over 1.7 million, with CLASS 95 leading the charge by growing its weekly audience by 22 per cent to 874,000.

“In a strong showing of the cross-generational appeal of radio, its young fans were key to this growth: listeners aged 15 to 34 made CLASS 95 their top station, and time spent by tertiaries aged 15 to 24 jumped 58 per cent to 3.2 hours weekly,” said Mediacorp.

On the Chinese front, YES 933, LOVE 972 and CAPITAL 958 drew a combined 1.9 million listeners, making up 37.4 per cent of all radio listening and 3.4 times the combined reach of other Chinese stations in Singapore.

In particular, YES 933 retained its position as Singapore’s number one radio station for a third consecutive year with 902,000 listeners, or one in four of all Chinese listeners.

LOVE 972 is close behind at 858,000 – which is second among Chinese stations and third overall.

“Notably, the station has also deepened its bond with affluent listeners, whose weekly time with the station jumped 30 per cent to 7.6 hours,” Mediacorp said.

Among seniors aged 55 and above, CAPITAL 958 remained the segment’s number one station, growing its total listenership by 4.4 per cent to reach 666,000.

Across all its platforms, Mediacorp reaches 98.1 per cent of Malay and 97.5 per cent of Indian listeners aged 15 and above.

In particular, WARNA 942 reached its highest-ever listenership – 88.1 per cent of Malay listeners – and also remains Singapore’s most-engaged radio station, with audiences tuning in for 13.2 hours weekly.

Among younger Malay listeners, RIA 897 almost doubled its millennial listener base in the past year, with time spent growing at a three-year CAGR of 10.2 per cent

Similarly, OLI 968 grew its average listening time by 22 per cent to hit 8.7 hours weekly – its third consecutive year of gains, compounding at 8.3 per cent annually.

BEYOND THE AIRWAVES

Beyond radio, Mediacorp’s audio brands now also operate across broadcast, streaming and social media, with digital and social performance figures based on Mediacorp’s internal data and platform analytics.

On the streaming front, nine in 10 digital audio listeners in Singapore tune in to a Mediacorp station, while melisten drew an average of 1.89 million podcast downloads monthly from March to April 2026. On social media, the brands drew over 300 million social video views over the same period.

The network’s audio brands now count 2.98 million followers across social platforms, generating 3.56 million likes, comments and shares in the same period.

Such engagement is driven by a variety of formats, including vidcasts, melisten and the Mediacorp Entertainment YouTube channel, which give audiences a closer look at the personalities behind their favourite podcasts.

Among the standouts this year is LOVE 972’s Breakfast Quartet – Dialect Edition, in which the station’s morning hosts engage in candid, contemporary conversations entirely in dialect. Together with highlight reels on social media, the series has drawn over 1.5 million views across platforms since its debut, contributing to the brand’s total video view count of 46.4 million.

On the scripted content front, Mediacorp’s audio personalities are also stepping into microdramas, and the appeal is shown in the viewership numbers, said Mediacorp.

For instance, YES 933’s Love Revenge amassed over 5.53 million views across TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and mewatch, while LOVE 972’s Please Fall in Love, Ms Pan got over 4.91 million views on the same platforms.

Among Mediacorp’s youth-centric brands, RIA 897’s total TikTok views more than tripled to 25 million over the past year, driven by series such as Cekap Lepas, which unpacks community topics through candid “boy talk”, as well as School Invasions, which lets familiar personalities bring trending challenges into school halls.

Similarly, 987’s total TikTok views reached 16.3 million over the same period, anchored by its flagship comedy series Bad Jokes that features scripted skits with marquee guests.

Elsewhere, OLI 968’s video views across TikTok, Instagram and Facebook nearly tripled to 23 million, driven by series such as Padithalil Pidithathu and Bus Payanam, which turn Tamil quotes and everyday bus journeys into “bite-sized celebrations of language and community”, said Mediacorp.

“At its heart, radio is about companionship – the familiar voices that inform, entertain and engage with audiences throughout their day. What has changed is how far that companionship extends,” said Mediacorp’s chief customer and corporate development officer Angeline Poh.

“Across radio, vidcasts, short videos and even microdramas, our personalities are deepening the relationships they have built with audiences, extending the everyday closeness of audio into new platforms. And wherever audiences gather next, they can count on us to be there.”

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