👉 Background: ABC is the Australian publicly-owned national broadcaster that was established by the Federal government back in 1932. It's known for its TV shows like Four Corners, Q & A as well as its radio stations across the country.

👉 What happened: Now, ABC Radio in Sydney and Brisbane have seen their radio market share plummet to the lowest levels since 2004. We’re talking market shares of 5.1% and 4.2% respectively. Compare that to 10 years ago when these networks had close to double the market share, at around 10%.

👉 What else: Radio listenership as a whole has declined significantly post-pandemic and as traditional media platforms like radio and free-to-air TV are in decline, media companies like ABC have shifted their focus to digital offerings. But for ABC, shifting the resources hasn’t quite paid off.

What's the key learning?

💡 As the media industry matures, companies needs to adapt to the needs of different generations.

💡Traditional forms of media like radio and TV is still largely how audiences over the age of 50 consume ABCs content. But with ABC’s more recent focus on digital, it has come at the cost of its “legacy products” — which happens to be a major chunk of its audience.

💡With media consumption being so different between generations, large media companies either need to own a particular demographic or invest heavily in multiple forms of media (traditional & digital) to appeal to the masses.

‍