TVM still takes lion's share of audience

TVM has remained the top television channel in terms of audience share, according to the Broadcasting Authority's Continuous Audience Assessment report for the second quarter of this year.

Between April and June, TVM attracted 33 per cent of the audience and was followed by One TV at 15.1 per cent and the foreign station Rai Uno with 11.6 per cent.

As regards radio stations, One Radio attracted the highest proportion of listeners at 20.2 per cent, followed by Bay Radio at 17.1 per cent and Calypso Radio at 11.6 per cent.

The data, collected from telephone interviews of 1,790 persons, showed that local TV stations had a stronger female following.

On the other hand, Rai Uno, Rai Due, Rai Tre, Italia 1 and Discovery Channel were among the foreign stations with a stronger male viewership. In general, radio stations had a balanced gender audience.

The report, however, noted a significant gender slant towards certain stations: those listening to Radju Parlament and Campus FM were mostly male while those following Radju Marija, Radju Malta and RTK were mainly female listeners.

The report noted that XFM radio registered the only marked increase in the number of its listeners, from 3.2 per cent of total viewers in January-March to 6.8 per cent during the second quarter.

People tend to listen to radio for longer than they watch TV: a national average of 1.64 hours every day for radio compared to 0.72 hours daily in front of TV.

The full report can be viewed on www.ba-malta.org.