Release: Immediate
Date: 25th September 2018
PR 08/18
BA SURVEY REGISTERS TELEVISION AND RADIO AUDIENCES SHIFTS
The Broadcasting Authority has released the audience assessment survey for July 2018.
For this assessment forty daily questionnaires were compiled by the NSO giving a total sample of 1,240 respondents with the youngest being 12 year olds. Overall, this sample gives a margin of error of ±2.52%. The data was analysed demographically by gender, by age-group, and by six geographical districts.
The audience survey took place during the whole month of July.
Watching TV
While in February 264,000 persons, or 63.3% of the population, followed television regularly, for July this figure dropped to 250,000 or 58.8% - a decrease of 4.5%. However, regular TV viewing has increased by 7.8% (from 51.0%) over the same period last year (July 2017).
The average number of hours spent watching television has increased from 1.81hrs during February to 1.85hrs during July. Over the whole of the population aged 12 years and over, average viewing was at 1.51hrs which was 12’36” higher than at the precious assessment of February 2018 (1.30hrs) and 36’36” higher than that of the same period last year [July 2017: 0.90hrs].
Television Audiences
TVM has attracted the largest amount of TV-viewers (29.91%) with approximately 104,000 viewers. This station was followed by ONE with 14.85% (≈52,000); TVM2 with 12.21% (≈43,000); and Net TV with 8.24% (≈29,000). The other local TV stations’ reach ranged between 0.06% and 1.75%. Furthermore, 31.04% (≈108,000) of the population followed a foreign TV station. On average TV viewers spent a total of 1.85hrs every day watching their favourite programme.
Respondents were asked what type of programme they like to watch on local television stations. Local & Foreign News were the most favorite programme genre [24.5%]. Local Drama programmes ranked second [15.9%] while Discussion & Current Affairs programmes ranked third [10.7%]. Sport programmes ranked fourth [10.1%] and these were followed by Cultural/Eductional programmes [8.7%]. The other categories named by respondents were as follows:
| Light Entertainment/ Comedy/Games |
- |
7.5% |
| Documentaries |
- |
6.9% |
| Music Videos |
- |
6.4% |
| Religious |
- |
6.4% |
| Teleshopping |
- |
2.5% |
| Children's |
- |
2.0% |
Analysed by gender, female preferences exceed male preference for both Local & Foreign News [F:65.7%; M:62.9%] and Drama [F:52.9%; M:30.9%] while male preferences slightly exceeded female preferences of Discussion & Current Affairs programmes by just 0.3% [M:28.2%; F: 27.9%]. Male preferences greatly exceeded female preferences for Sports programmes [M;39.0%/F:14.0%] while female preferences greatly exceeded male preferences for Cultural/Educational programmes
[F: 25.3%/ M: 20.2%]; Light Entertainment [F:22.4%/ M:17.1%]; and Teleshopping [F:10.3%/M:3.0%].
The most common service for watching television is that of a paid subscription [91.0%]; followed by Internet based services [eg. Android box – 13.4%]; 4.1% of the population said that they have a free-to-air service only.
Radio Listening
On the other hand, radio listening has increased by 2.1%. While in February 212,000 persons (aged 12 years and over) listened to radio regularly, in July this figure rose to 225,000 persons (February: 50.9%; July: 53.0%).
During July, radio listeners spent an average of 3.16hrs every day following their favourite radio station. This was 12 minutes more than the assessment of February (2.99hrs) and 15 minutes more over that of the same period last year (July 2017).
Radio Audiences
In general radio listeners tend to follow one particular radio station. 89.7 Bay has attracted the largest amount of radio listeners [25.09%] with 56,000 listeners. This station was followed by ONE Radio with 15.48% of all listeners [35,000]; Vibe FM with 9.2% [21,000]; and Radju Malta [8.5%; 19,000].
89.7 Bay was the most followed station by all those under fifty years old – with nearly 80% of 12-20 year olds; nearly half of all 21-30 year olds [44.91%]; and nearly a third of all 31-50 year olds [31.20%] following this station.
However, taking all the audiences (i.e. the number of listeners and the amount of time spent) for all the weekdays, ONE Radio ranked first with 24.6% of all audiences, followed by 89.7 Bay [15.0%]; Calypso Radio [11.2%]; NET FM [8.6%]; Radju Malta [8.1%]; Vibe FM [7.2%]; RTK [5.9%]; Radju Marija [5.6%]; Smash Radio [5.1%]; Magic Malta [2.6%]; Community Stations [1.9%]; while the rest had less than 1% of the audiences.
The full version of the results of the survey can be downloaded from the Authority’s website.
Mario Axiak, M.B.A (Maastricht)
Head, Research & Communications
25th September 2018
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Click here for Press Release 08/18
Click here for the full Assessment of July 2018
Click here for previous assessments