Media Releases

Public media that matters: RNZ reaches a record 83% of New Zealanders

Released at 11:13 am on 18 September 2025

RNZ is reaching more New Zealanders than before and growing trust.

Results from the latest Verian Value Indices Survey show RNZ reaches 83% of New Zealanders 18+ per month, up from 79% in the last survey and a new high. *

At the same time, trust in RNZ increased nine points to 58% in a year. This follows RNZ being named as the most trusted news brand in New Zealand by the AUT Trust in News in Aotearoa New Zealand report.  **

RNZ Chief Executive and Editor-in-Chief Paul Thompson said the result shows how much New Zealanders value RNZ.

“15 years ago, RNZ was essentially two radio stations that reached at best 20% of New Zealanders. If you didn’t happen to be listening to live radio at the time you missed the interview or insight. Now we provide multiple ways to access our content, either live or recorded. We have expanded our online presence significantly and we share our content with other media, with more than 60 sharing agreements in place."

“We’ve done a good job of transforming from two radio stations to a multimedia organisation and the end result is that more New Zealanders are able to access RNZ and public media than ever before.”

Thompson said the increase in trust was particularly important.

“Trust in media has been declining worldwide, and this is of particular concern to public media entities. RNZ’s approach has been to make our editorial processes as transparent as we can, focusing on reliable and objective reporting and rectifying errors as soon as practicable. We have a role to be leaders in this area, to ensure that New Zealanders can access factual, verified information.”

The survey results follow last month’s radio ratings that showed a small but promising increase in RNZ National’s audience, alongside an increase in RNZ Concert’s audience. Overall, RNZ’s cumulative weekly radio audience is 575,500, an increase of 18,500 from the previous survey.

RNZ’s digital platforms continue to record excellent growth, with 1,550,000 New Zealanders visiting rnz.co.nz in August – a 9% increase on the month before. ***

Reporting on all of RNZ's value measures included in the Statement of Performance Expectations are available at: www.rnz.co.nz/about/audience-research

ENDS

*Verian Research Value Indices Survey. Survey size of 2000. Survey completed between 18-31 August 2025

** Trust in news in New Zealand | Journalism, Media and Democracy Research Centre - available here

*** Nielsen Digital Content Ratings, All people 15+