2nd August 2024
PR 20/24
Audience Survey March 2024
The Broadcasting Authority is issuing the results of the audience assessment survey carried out in February-March 2024. This report was not issued earlier not to fall during the electoral MEP campaign.
The object of this periodic audience assessment survey is to capture and assess the viewer/listenership of TV, radio and online content and identify the preferred source of local news amongst Maltese residents aged 12+ years. Hence, this audience survey is carried out with ‘individuals’ and not ‘households’. This research approach allows the BA to obtain statistically significant media audience research findings (within the stated confidence intervals), which may, in turn, be extrapolated to Malta’s population (12+ years) by age and gender.
The audience survey’s dates of assessment comprised between Sunday 25th February – 2nd March 2024, 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, 2023).
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
- 87% of Maltese residents are TV viewers. Of these, 60% watch both local and foreign TV, 21% watch local TV stations only and 6% watch foreign TV stations only.
- 2 in 3 of Maltese residents are radio listeners (67.1%); this finding is observed across all age cohorts.
- 15.4% of Maltese residents watch online Maltese programmes (solely produced for online portals).
- A. TV Viewership
A. Favourite genre for local TV programmes
- News is the most favourite genre for local TV programmes, with 79% indicating this as one of their favourite genres. This genre was mentioned as one of the favourite genres across all seven age cohorts.
- Drama is the second most favourite genre, with 49% indicating this as one of their favourite genres for local TV programmes. This genre is significantly more popular amongst female TV viewers (69%) than male TV viewers (29%).
- Discussions and Current affairs is the third most favourite genre for local TV programmes, with 40% 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 1827 TV viewers, 11% of TV viewers across all age cohorts said that they did not watch any television on the previous day.
- TVM is the most followed TV station by 41% 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.
- NET TV is second most followed TV station, with 18.7% of all TV viewers mentioning NET TV as one of the TV stations they watched on the previous day. NET TV is watched by all age cohorts aged 21+ years.
- ‘Foreign stations (any)’ is the third most followed TV station/s, with 17.6% of all local TV viewers having watched a foreign TV station on the previous day.
- ONE is the fourth most followed TV station, with 17% having watched this station on the previous day.
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=1827)
NOTE I: 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 table do NOT total up to 100%.
Exhibit I illustrates the most followed TV stations during Week 25th February – 2nd March 2024.
‘I did not watch any TV on 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. The most followed TV timeband from Sunday to Saturday is: 20:00 - 20:30 (226,388 TV viewers)
Favourite Local TV Programme
- TVM News Bulletin is the most favourite local TV programme of 8% 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 this news bulletin.
- Moħħok Hemm obtained 7.8% of the TV viewers’ preferences, followed by Ta’ Gerit (5.9%) and Master Chef Malta (5.7%).
- 11.7% of all TV viewers indicated that they do not have a favourite local TV programme being aired in this TV schedule.
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.
- TVM, NET TV and ONE obtained the highest daily average audience share on separate days of the week of assessment, obtaining the following daily average TV viewership and daily percentage average TV viewership respectively:
TVM obtained the highest daily average audience share on Monday (18,583 – 36.8%), Wednesday (8,749 – 22.5%) and Sunday (9,738 – 21.5%).
NET TV obtained the highest daily average audience share on Tuesday (11,239 – 22.8%) and Thursday (11,463 – 27.3%).
ONE obtained the highest daily average audience share on Friday (8,749 - 22.9%) and Saturday (8,078 - 20.8%).
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 Table 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 percentage average audience share is TVM standing at 23.5%, followed by NET TV (19.5%) and ONE (16.6%). ‘Foreign stations (various)’ is being excluded from this ‘local TV station’ weekly audience ranking. 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
- 96.3% of all 1827 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.
- 10.1% make use of ‘IPTV’ as one of the reception services, whilst 7.2% use the ‘Android Box’.
- 1.9% use ‘free-to-air’ as one of the reception services for watching TV.
- Note: The survey respondents represent Maltese resident individuals aged 12+ years, who may not necessarily be fully knowledgeable on all the TV reception services used by their respective household and/or may not necessarily be their household’s decision-maker/co-decision-maker for same.
- 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. Out of a total of 1473 radio listeners, 12.6% did not listen to radio on the previous day.
- Calypso 101.8 is the most followed radio station, with 15.1% of all radio listeners mentioning it as one of the three radio stations they had listened to on the previous day. A close second came ONE Radio with 14.9% of preferences and Radju Malta came third with 12.4%.
- Exhibit V below depicts more details on the most followed Radio stations.
Exhibit V – Q14 – Most followed Radio stations (Aggregate)
(Multiple-Response Q) (n= 1473)
Note: Respondents were given the possibility of mentioning up to 3 Radio Stations 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 two most followed radio timebands are:
07:00 – 07:30 (161,143 radio listeners)
07.30 – 08:00 (133,118 radio listeners)
Favourite Local Radio Programme
- Bay Breakfast with Daniel & Ylenia is the most favourite local radio programme, with 6.9% mentioning it as their preferred local radio programme. This radio programme is largely preferred by the younger age cohorts up to 40 years old.
- The Morning Vibe with Abel, JD & Martina is second with 5.7% of preferences (84 responses), also largely followed by the younger age cohorts. And a very close third came Bongu Calypso ma’ Twanny Scerri with 5.7% of preferences, (83 responses), largely followed by the older age cohorts, 31+ years.
- 3.8% 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 Calypso 101.8, ONE Radio and NET FM on the following weekdays, namely (average daily audience shares in figures and percentages):
Calypso 101.8: Sunday: 8,461 (20.5%), Wednesday: 8,589 (22.8%), Thursday: 9,834 (23.1%), Friday: 8,876 (21.9%) and Saturday: 9,419 (19.1%)
ONE Radio: Tuesday: 11,143 (24.1%).
NET FM: Monday: 8,876 (18%).
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 Table 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 percentage average audience share is Calypso 101.8 standing at 19.4%, ONE Radio standing at 17.5%, followed by NET FM at 13%.
Exhibit VIII – Weekly Percentage Average 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
- 99.1% 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.
- 12.4% listen to radio via live streaming on mobile, tablet, laptop, PC, largely by the younger age cohorts.
- 7.9% use DAB+ as one of the radio reception services for listening to radio, with this being mostly used by male radio listeners.
- C. Online Viewership
Note: Explanation of Terms
- Online Maltese programmes
The term ‘online Maltese programmes’ refers to Maltese audiovisual programmes/content produced to be solely shown on online portals and which cannot be watched on traditional TV.
- Assessing Online Programmes/Audiovisual Content on local Online portals
With reference to local online portals, it is worthy of mention that this audience survey focuses solely at assessing the viewership levels of Maltese programmes and audiovisual content produced locally and shown on these portals. This survey does not assess the readership levels of local online portals.
Online Viewership
- 84.6% of all Maltese residents do not watch any Maltese programmes/audiovisual content that are solely produced for online portals.
- The remaining 15.4% do watch online Maltese programmes/audiovisual content.
Online Portals or Platforms Used for Watching Maltese Programmes Online
- Facebook is the most used platform for watching online Maltese programmes/audiovisual content, with 92% mentioning it as one of the online platforms used for watching Maltese programmes online. This finding is evident across all age cohorts.
- 51.9% use Youtube, 38.3% use Instagram, 28.1% use timesofmalta.com and 24.4% use lovinmalta.com.
Exhibit IX – Q19 – Online portal/s or platform/s used for watching Maltese programmes online (Multiple-Response Q) (n=324)
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/Audiovisual Content
- Mobile is the most used device for online viewers to watch their preferred programme/audiovisual content online, with 92.3% indicating this device as their most used device. Mobile is the most used device across all age cohorts and gender.
- Following, 3.7% and 2.8% of online viewers use laptop and tablet, respectively.
Most Preferred Programme Online/Audiovisual Content
- 33% of all online viewers do not have a preferred local online programme/audiovisual content.
- Jon Mallia Podcasts are preferred by 12.7% of all online viewers.
- LovinMalta interviews/features and Times of Malta (Mark Lawrence Zammit) interviews/ features are preferred by 11.1% and 9% of online viewers, respectively.
D. Preferred Source For Local News
- Television is the preferred source for local news by 56.9% of all Maltese residents.
- 18.2% prefer Online news portals as their preferred source for local news whilst 15.6% prefer Facebook.
- 5.7% 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 56.9% of all Maltese residents mentioning television as their preferred source.
- 56.2% 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 21.8% 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 21% as the preferred local TV station for watching local news.
Online news portals are the second most preferred source for obtaining local news, with 18.2% mentioning this as their preferred source for obtaining local news.
- 61.4% 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.
- 15.7% indicated that they do not have a preferred online portal to watch news.
After Facebook, Radio is the fourth most preferred source for obtaining local news with 5.7%.
- 1 in 3 of individuals (36.7%) whose preferred source for obtaining local news is ‘Radio’, mentioned Radju Malta as their most preferred local radio station.
- 16.7% prefer ONE Radio as their most preferred source for obtaining local news.
- 14.2% mentioned NET FM as their most preferred local radio to obtaining local news.
- Note: Due to the low number of responses (n=120), these findings should be interpreted with caution.
The full version of the results of the survey can be downloaded from the Authority’s website: www.ba.org.mt under ‘Latest Reports’.
2nd August 2024