RNZ vs SBS Audio
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
RNZ
Access New Zealand's public broadcaster's news, radio stations, podcasts, and on-demand video and audio content. Enjoy a user-friendly interface with features like bookmarking, favorites, and a play queue for personalized listening. Listen live or offline, and receive breaking news alerts.
- Breaking news alerts and live coverage
- Live streaming of all RNZ radio stations
- On-demand programmes, podcasts, and series
- Play queue for listening later or offline
- Offline listening without internet access
- Personalization with favorites and bookmarks
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RNZ (Radio New Zealand) is New Zealand’s 100% ad-free, multimedia public broadcaster. Follow the latest breaking news, listen live to your favourite RNZ radio stations, programmes and podcasts and enjoy video or audio on demand - anytime, anywhere with the new RNZ app for iPhone. The all-new app is clear and simple to use, with bookmarking, favourites, sharing and options to personalise your experience – including a great new play queue and player. New features and highlights: • Get breaking news alerts, video and live coverage on a homepage news feed • Listen live to all RNZ’s radio stations – National, Pacific and Concert - plus the latest RNZ news bulletins, live blogs and live-streamed video • All-new build eliminates crashes and bugs and ensures audio play reliability • Live streaming sounds better than ever • New design is clear and simple to use • Easily discover all RNZ’s great programmes, podcasts and series, in their entirety • Add whole programmes, podcasts or individual audio items to your play queue for listening later or downloading for offline use • Favourite or bookmark to ‘My RNZ’ and easily find and listen to the latest content from all your favourite radio programmes • Listen offline without internet access The app was designed and developed in partnership with Alphero. If you have any feedback, a feature request, or wish to report an issue, we'd love to hear from you. Contact us at appproject@radionz.co.nz.
SBS Audio
Access music, news, podcasts, and community updates in your preferred language. Stream live radio stations and explore a diverse range of audio content.
- Music streaming
- Australian news and current affairs
- Podcasts
- Community updates
- Live radio programs
- Multilingual content
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The SBS Audio app (previously known as SBS Radio) connects you to music, Australian news and current affairs, podcasts and community updates in your language. Whether you want to catch up on radio programs in your language, stream SBS Chill, SBS PopAsia, or SBS South Asian and your favourite radio programs live, or explore podcasts, you’ll find it here. Listen anytime, anywhere for free. Download our app today and find a world of difference.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: RNZ at 3.6 against SBS Audio's 3.1. RNZ also leads on ads (none vs shown) and review sentiment (40% vs 24%). SBS Audio's advantage is update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 3 months). On price, ratings volume, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
RNZ holds the better App Store score, 3.6 against 3.1. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 17 and 18 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 40% of RNZ's written reviews are positive against 24% of SBS Audio's.
RNZ ships an update every 3 months, SBS Audio every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | RNZ | SBS Audio |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.6 (17 ratings) — better | 3.1 (18 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 39.6% of reviews — better | 24.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 17 | 18 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Ad-supported |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 51 MB | 46 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Radio New Zealand | Special Broadcasting Service Corporation |
Customer experience
RNZ
SBS Audio
User reviews
RNZ
From 17 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 📰 High-quality, ad-free news content
- 🌙 Dark mode implementation (recently added)
- 🎙️ Excellent radio streaming and podcasts
- 🆓 Free access to comprehensive news
- 📱 Generally user-friendly interface
Room to improve
- 🐛 App crashes and freezes frequently
- 📏 Text size too small, poor accessibility
- 🔊 Audio playback stops when app backgrounded
- 📱 Not optimized for iPad (phone-sized view)
- 🔗 Many articles redirect to external browser
SBS Audio
From 18 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Great music selection (Chill)
- 👍 Free to use
- 👍 Good for language learning
- 👍 Clear audio quality
- 👍 Works well for some users
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent app crashes/freezing
- 🐛 Pausing/resuming issues (resets to beginning)
- 🐛 Frequent connection drops/streaming issues
- 🐛 Battery draining quickly
- 🐛 Ads interrupting streams
Bugs and requests
RNZ
Reported bugs
12 issues- App stops playing audio when screen locks
- Crashes on iPhone 14 with iOS 18.5
- HomePod connection drops after seconds
- News items fail to open randomly
- Swipe-to-go-back navigation broken
Show 7 moreShow fewer
- App cuts out mid-playback
- Buffering and stopping issues
- Dark mode renders graph legends unreadable
- iPad display shows narrow phone-sized view
- News articles stuck on stale cached versions
- Playback jumps back/forward during live streams
- App hangs when opening news items
Requested features
13 requests- Dynamic Type/adjustable font size support
- Image zoom functionality in articles
- iPad-optimized app version
- Granular notification settings (sports, crime, regional)
- Sleep timer feature
Show 8 moreShow fewer
- Skip forward/backward 30-second buttons
- Home button on every page
- Widget for breaking news
- Better CarPlay functionality
- Direct speaker/Sonos integration
- Program schedule display in app
- Offline access to downloaded content
- Siri voice command support
SBS Audio
Reported bugs
31 issues- App stops frequently while broadcasting
- App not compatible with CarPlay
- Cannot pause and play from Home Screen
- Dead support link
- Ads from current location
Show 26 moreShow fewer
- Constant streaming issues
- App often has to be rebooted to play
- Pausing often resets to the beginning
- Problematic over Bluetooth speaker
- Drains phone battery very quickly
- App not launching after update (white blank screen)
- App doesn't work after update
- Latest version not working on iPhone 6S
- Constant cutting out, takes multiple tries to start streaming
- Plays for only approx. 10 minutes before stopping
- Ads on radio streaming
- Music is tired and crappy
- Play button gets stuck
- Radio stops playing after a minute
- Play button stops working after interrupting
- Cannot download podcasts
- App opens one podcast and becomes unresponsive
- Search feature is well hidden
- No full episode for Cantonese radio show
- Playlist issue for Chill
- Hard to navigate and find playlist
- Song playlist not accurate
- Sharing podcasts has never worked
- App freezes after music plays
- New version is terrible
- Sleep timer missing
Requested features
11 requests- CarPlay compatibility
- Dark mode
- Ability to slow down speech for language learning
- Sleep timer
- Search function
Show 6 moreShow fewer
- Tutorial for new users
- Option to view weekly playlists
- Purchase songs from iTunes
- Download full episodes of podcasts
- Improved playlist accuracy
- Translate broadcast times to local time
In-app purchases
RNZ
No in-app purchases
SBS Audio
No in-app purchases
