Release: Immediate
25th July 2023
PR 03/23
Audience Survey May 2023
The Broadcasting Authority is pleased to announce that it has just issued the results of the audience assessment survey carried out in the last week of May 2023. The object of this periodic audience assessment survey is to assess the viewer/listenership of TV, radio and online content and identify the preferred source of local news amongst Maltese residents aged 12+ years. The dates of assessment comprised between Sunday 21st May – Saturday 27th May 2023, both dates inclusive. The survey was conducted by M. FSADNI & Associates.
Research Methodology
For this audience survey wave, the survey sample comprised 2,100 completed interviews. A total of 300 interviews per day were conducted over 7 consecutive days with Maltese residents aged 12+ years, hailing from Malta’s six geographical regions (NSO, 2022).
The aggregate 2100-count audience survey sample produced statistically significant findings at a +/-2.13 confidence interval (margin of error) at a 95% confidence level.
The daily 300-count audience survey sample produced statistically significant findings at a +/-5.66 confidence interval (margin of error) at a 95% confidence level.
All interviews were conducted by CATI (computer-assisted telephone interviews), using a structured research instrument to compile the data.
The research findings for TV viewership and radio listenership were extrapolated to reflect Malta’s population. This was calculated on the most recent population statistics, as outlined by the National Statistics Office (NSO) in their recent publication “Census of Population and Housing 2021 Final Report, Volume 1” (NSO, 2023). For this extrapolation exercise, non-TV viewers and non-radio listeners were proportionately deducted from Malta’s population of individuals aged 12+ years (N=459,781).
Salient Research Findings
A synopsis of the salient research findings emanating from the audience survey now follows.
TV Viewership, Radio Listenership & Online Viewership – An Overview
- 88% of Maltese residents are TV viewers. Of these, 56% watch both local and foreign TV, 28% watch local TV stations only and 4% watch foreign TV stations only.
- 2 in 3 Maltese residents are radio listeners (62%). This finding was observed across all age cohorts.
- 18% of Maltese residents watch online Maltese programmes (solely produced for online portals), largely hailing from the younger age cohorts.
A. TV Viewership
Favourite genre for local TV programmes
- News is the most favourite genre for local TV programmes, with 75.5% indicating this as one of their favourite genres. This genre was mentioned as one of the favourite genres by 8 in 10 of TV viewers aged 31+ years.
- Drama is the second most favourite genre, with 41.4% indicating this as one of their favourite genres for local TV programmes. This genre is significantly more popular amongst female TV viewers (59.4%) than male TV viewers (23.5%).
- Discussions and Current affairs is the third most favourite genre for local TV programmes, with 33.4% indicating this as one of their preferred genres.
Most Followed TV Stations
- All of Malta’s TV Viewers were given the possibility of mentioning up to three TV stations they watched on the previous day. Out of a total of 1838 TV viewers, 1 in 10 viewers (9.8%) across all age cohorts said that they did not watch any television on the previous day.
- TVM is the most watched TV station by almost 2 in 3 (62.2%) of all local TV viewers mentioning TVM as one of the three TV stations they watched on the previous day. TVM is, in fact, the most watched local station across all age cohorts and gender.
- Foreign stations (any) are a distant most followed second, with 18.7% having watched a foreign TV station on the previous day.
- ONE is the third most followed TV station, with 17.8% of all TV viewers mentioning ONE as one of the TV stations they watched on the previous day. ONE is mostly followed by the older age cohort TV viewers aged 31+ years.
- NET TV is the fourth most followed TV station, with 14.6% having watched this station on the previous day. NET TV is mostly followed by the older age cohort TV viewers aged 51+ years.
Exhibit I below depicts more details on the most followed TV stations.
Exhibit I – Most followed TV stations (Sunday to Saturday)
(Multiple-Response Q) (n=1838)
Note: Respondents were given the possibility of mentioning up to 3 TV Stations which they had watched on the previous day. Hence, the percentages depicted in this Exhibit do NOT total up to 100%.
Exhibit I illustrates the most followed TV stations during Week 21st – 27th May 2023.
‘Did not watch any TV on the previous day’ refers to TV viewers who did not watch TV
on the day of assessment during that particular week.
Note: TV stations not featured in the Exhibit above have a TV viewership of less than 0.1%
Between Sunday to Saturday.
Most Followed TV Timebands
- All TV Viewers (excluding TV viewers who did not watch TV on the date of assessment) were asked to indicate all timebands during which they watched the three mentioned TV stations (including foreign stations) on the previous day. Overall, the three most followed TV timebands are:
- 20:00 - 20:30 (225,949 TV viewers)
- 21:00 - 21:30 (185,664 TV viewers)
- 21:30 - 22:00 (171,870 TV viewers)
Favourite Local TV Programme
- TVM’s news bulletin is the most favourite local TV programme of 10.2% of all local TV viewers. Worthy of mention is the TVM news bulletin was largely watched on station TVM and not on TVMnews+, unless TV viewers plan to watch a programme on the latter station, straight after the news bulletin.
- Moħħok Hemm (10.1%), Love Island Malta (9.6%) and Liquorish (9.1%) all proved to be among the most favourite local TV programmes with local TV viewers.
Population Average Audience Share by Weekday and by Station
- From the daily TV viewership findings, the population average audience share by weekday and by station was drawn up. This daily average audience share has been derived by totalling the aggregate daily viewership obtained by each TV station and dividing this by the number of timeslots. This daily average audience share for each TV station has been presented in figures and percentages, depicted in Exhibits II and III below.
- On all 7 days of the week (from Sunday to Saturday), the highest daily average audience share was obtained by TVM, attaining a daily average TV viewership ranging between 15,326 – 26,246, which is equivalent to a percentage average daily TV viewership between 37.9% - 56% on these days.
Exhibit II – Q8 – TV - Population Average Audience Share By Weekday and By Station
Exhibit III – Q8 – TV – Percentage Average Audience Share By Weekday and By Station
Note: TV stations with ‘zero/0%’ audience on a particular weekday in the Exhibit above denotes that their viewership (on that day) was too low to be captured.
Population Weekly Average Audience Share by TV Station
- The weekly average percentage audience share by TV Station may be derived from Exhibit III above. The local TV station with the highest weekly average percentage audience share is TVM standing at 44.5%, followed by ONE (12.8%) and NET TV (10.2%). The weekly average percentage audience share of foreign stations (various) stands at 18.7%. More detailed findings may be found in Exhibit IV below.
Exhibit IV – Weekly Average Percentage Audience Share by TV station
Note: % figures illustrated below are derived from Exhibit III above
Types of TV reception services used for watching TV
- 93.7% of all 1838 TV viewers, use ‘Paid Subscription (Melita/GO/Epic)’ as one of the reception services for watching TV. This is the most used reception service for watching TV across all age groups.
- 11.4% make use of ‘IPTV’ as one of the reception services, whilst 8.3% use the ‘Android Box’.
- 1.1% use ‘free-to-air’ as one of the reception services for watching TV.
B. Radio Listenership
Most Followed Radio Stations
- All radio listeners (excluding radio listeners who did not listen to radio on the dates of assessment) were given the possibility of mentioning up to three radio stations they had listened to on the previous day. 13.7% of these radio listeners did not listen to radio on the previous day.
- One Radio is the most followed radio station, with 14.1% of all radio listeners mentioning it as one of the three radio stations they had listened to on the previous day. One Radio is largely popular with the older age cohorts (30+ year old).
- A close second are Bay and Calypso Radio 101.8FM with a 13.8% share each of all radio listeners. Bay’s listeners are largely young (aged 12 – 30 years old), whilst Calypso’s radio audience is older (40+ years old).
Exhibit V below depicts more details on the most followed Radio stations.
Exhibit V – Q14 – Most followed Radio stations (Aggregate)
(Multiple-Response Q) (n= 1396)
Note: Respondents were given the possibility of mentioning up to 3 Radio Stations which they had listened to
on the previous day. Hence, the percentages depicted in this Exhibit do NOT total up to 100%.
Most Followed Radio Timebands
- All local radio listeners (excluding radio listeners who did not listen to radio on the dates of assessment) were asked to indicate all timebands during which they listened to the three mentioned radio stations (including foreign stations) on the previous day. Overall, the three most followed radio timebands are:
- 07:00 – 07:30 (150,414 radio listeners)
- 07.30 – 08:00 (149,757 radio listeners)
- 08:00 – 08:30 (133,775 radio listeners)
Favourite Local Radio Programme
- Bay Breakfast with Daniel & Ylenia is the most favourite local radio programme, with 10.5% mentioning it as their preferred local radio programme. This radio programme is largely preferred by the younger age cohorts, 12-40 years.
- Bongu Calypso ma’ Twanny Scerri with 6.5% and The Morning Vibe with Abel, JD & Martina with 6.2% are the second and third most favourite local radio programmes. The former is listened to by the older age cohorts (41+ year old), whilst the latter is popular with the younger age cohorts (under 40 years old).
- 10.5% of radio listeners do not have a preferred local radio programme.
Population Average Audience Share by Weekday and by Station
- From the daily radio listenership findings, the population average audience share by weekday and by station were drawn up. This daily average audience share has been derived by totalling the aggregate daily listenership obtained by each radio station and dividing this by the number of timeslots. This daily average audience share for each radio station has been presented in figures and percentages and the weekly average percentage audience share by radio station are depicted in Exhibits VI and VII below.
- The highest population daily average audience shares were obtained by ONE Radio and Calypso Radio 101.8FM on various weekdays, namely (average daily audience shares in figures and percentages):
- ONE Radio: Monday: 6035 (17%), Tuesday: 6290 (18%), Friday: 7567 (20%) and Saturday: 7663 (18%)
- Calypso Radio 101.8FM: Sunday:3640 (20%), Wednesday: 6354 (17%) and Thursday: 6514 (17%).
Exhibit VI - Q14 – RADIO - Population Average Audience Share By Weekday and By Station
Exhibit VII - Q14 – RADIO – Percentage Average Audience Share By Weekday and By Station
Note I: Radio listeners were given the possibility of mentioning up to 3 radio stations on the weekday in question. For each radio station, these radio listeners were asked to indicate all time slots during which they listened to the mentioned radio station. (Multiple-response Q)
Note II: Radio stations with a “zero/%” audience on a particular weekday in the Exhibit above denotes that their listenership (on that day) was too low to be captured.
Population Weekly Average Audience Share by Radio Station
- From Exhibit VII above, the weekly average percentage audience share by Radio Station may be derived. The local radio station with the highest weekly average percentage audience share is Calypso Radio 101.8FM standing at 17%, followed by One Radio (16%).
Exhibit VIII – Weekly Average Percentage Audience Share by Radio Station
Note I: % figures illustrated below are derived from Exhibit VII above
Note II: Radio stations not depicted in this graphical illustration denotes that their listenership was too low to be captured
Types of Radio Reception Services used for Listening to Radio
- 95.8% of all radio listeners use the radio set (at home, office, in car) as one of the radio reception services for listening to radio. This is the most used radio reception service by radio listeners across all age groups.
- 18.9% listen to radio via live streaming on mobile, tablet, laptop, PC.
- 9% use DAB+ as one of the radio reception services for listening to radio, with this being mostly used by radio listeners aged 12 – 50 years old.
C. Online Viewership
NB. The term ‘online Maltese programmes’ refers to Maltese programmes produced solely for online portals, which cannot be watched on traditional TV.
- 82% of all Maltese residents do not watch any Maltese programmes that are solely produced for online portals.
- The remaining 18.3% do watch online Maltese programmes. The younger age cohorts (12-40 years), seem more inclined to watch these online Maltese programmes than the older cohorts.
Online Portals or Platforms Used for Watching Maltese Programmes Online
- Facebook is the most used platform for watching online Maltese programmes, with 2 in 3 of all online viewers (65.7%) mentioning it as one of the online platforms used for watching Maltese programmes online. This finding is evident across all age cohorts.
- Following, just over 1 in 3 (36.1%) use Youtube for watching online Maltese programmes.
- A further 1 in 3 (35.6%) use timesofmalta.com to watch online Maltese programmes.
- Note: These findings must be interpreted with caution, given the low number of individuals (n=385) who watch online Maltese programmes.
Exhibit IX – Q19 – Online portal/s or platform/s used for watching Maltese
programmes online (Multiple-Response Q) (n=385)
NOTE: The %s below refer to the number of respondents and NOT to the number of responses,
hence they do not total up to 100%
Most Used Device For Watching Preferred Programme Online
- Mobile is the most used device for online viewers to watch their preferred programme online, with 91.7% indicating this device as their most used device. Mobile is the most used device across all age cohorts and gender.
- Following, 3.9% and 3.4% of online viewers use laptop and tablet, respectively.
Most Preferred Programme Online
- 49.6% of all online viewers do not have a preferred local online programme, while 6.5% have more than one preferred programme.
- Jon Mallia Podcasts are preferred by 17.9% of all online viewers.
- Times of Malta (Mark Lawrence Zammit) is preferred by 13.2% of online viewers.
D. Preferred Source For Local News
- Television is the preferred source for local news by 45.8% of all Maltese residents.
- Facebook is preferred by 27%, whilst 13% prefer Online news portals as their preferred source for local news.
- 6% use Radio as their preferred source for local news.
Exhibit X – Preferred Source for Local News
Preferred Source to Obtain Local News
Television is the most preferred source of local news followers to obtain local news, with 45.8% of all Maltese residents mentioning television as their preferred source.
- 2 in 3 (61%) of all those whose preferred source for obtaining local news is ‘Television’, mentioned TVM as their most preferred local TV station for watching local news. TVM is the most preferred station for local news by individuals across all age groups.
- ONE is the second most preferred local TV station for watching local news, with 20% mentioning this station as their preferred local station for watching local news.
- NET TV is the third most preferred local TV station for watching local news, and this was mentioned by 15.7% as the preferred local TV station for watching local news.
After Facebook, online news portals are the third most preferred source for obtaining local news, with 13% mentioning this as their preferred source for obtaining local news.
- 55.3% of all individuals who prefer local news portals for following local news, mentioned timesomalta.com as their preferred local news portal, making it the most preferred local news portal for following local news across all age groups and gender.
- 1 in 4 (24.2%) indicated that to follow local news, they use different online portals equally.
Radio is the fourth most preferred source for obtaining local news with 6%.
- 1 in 3 of individuals (32.6%) whose preferred source for obtaining local news is ‘Radio’, mentioned Radju Malta 1 as their most preferred local radio station.
- 23.3% prefer ONE Radio as their most preferred source for obtaining local news.
- 17.1% mentioned NET FM as their most preferred local radio to obtaining local news.
The full version of the results of the survey can be downloaded here.
25th July 2023