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James Debono
Without naming Malta’s favourite television programme, the latest survey by the Broadcasting Authority has shown that TVM has its largest audience share on a Thursday when tearjerker Tista’ Tkun Int, the potpourri of human misery, commercials and charity, is aired. Compared to the January-March period, TVM’s audience share on Fridays fell by 12 per cent in the April to June period.
The statistics are merely indicative, showing only the audience share of each station during the whole day, and not during a particular time band.
Viewership peaks on all stations on Friday after the eight ‘o’ clock news when Xarabank is aired on TVM whilst at the same time other programmes such as Super One’s Mona Lisa, NET’s Living 360, Italia Uno’s CSI and Canale Cinque’s Zelig are aired.
The survey for the April to June period also shows that political stations are losing their hold among younger and more educated viewers. Mediaset channels as a group are preferred to individual Maltese TV stations.
Significantly, the survey shows that Silvio Berlusconi’s Mediaset empire is more popular than any other single Maltese TV station, with higher shares for Italia Uno, Canale Cinque and Rete Quattro.
As regards Maltese channels, while Super One and TVM manage to generate a strong sense of belonging among ageing and less educated viewers, NET TV fails miserably in generating brand loyalty and only 4.6 per cent of viewers regard it as their favourite station.
Significantly educated viewers are drifting away from Maltese TV in general and 36 per cent of people with a tertiary education do not watch any Maltese TV.
One of the most interesting findings of this survey is the popularity of the Mediaset triumvirate, registered as the favourite channels of 20.3 per cent of viewers, making them as a whole more popular than any single Maltese TV station.
The political stations are clearly losing ground among the 12-29 age bracket, where Italian Uno emerges as the preferred station for 24.5 per cent. It is also this group that shows MTV faring better than both Super One and NET, at 8.5 per cent. Super One is enjoyed by just 6.4 per cent, whilst NET atcually enjoys a miserable 1.1 per cent.
It is the success of Mediaset’s own variety of pungent satirical programmes such as Le Iene and the usual mixture of voyeurism and reality shows that now has the Maltese programmers desperately scrambling to emulate.
More intellectually demanding TV stations like Rai Tre fare very badly in the local market. Discovery Channel is the favourite cable station with three per cent.
The survey also shows NET TV as generating the least sense of belonging among the main Maltese TV stations. In fact only 4.6 per cent of viewers regard NET TV as their favourite. TVM is the favourite station of 15.7 per cent of viewers. Super One is the favourite of 12.7 per cent of viewers.
Labour’s television station maintains its popularity in the southern harbour region, not surprisingly, which also includes Cottonera. It also ranks second in western and Gozo areas.
TVM is the favourite in the northern harbour districts, which inlude localities such as Sliema, Msida and St Julians, and the northern and Gozo districts.
NET is strongest in the western district and localities like Balzan, Rabat and Zebbug. In Gozo, it enjoys the same rate of following as Smash TV with 3.3 per cent.
As regards actual viewership, TVM remains Malta’s most viewed channel with 26.1 per cent of the vote, a sharp drop from the 35 per cent of the audience share in the January to March period. Super One is the second most viewed channel with 14.9 per cent, a slight drop from its 16.3 per cent audience share in the previous period. NET TV remained a distant third with just 9.8 per cents of the audience share. Maltese stations in general fare badly among more educated viewers. In fact 36 per cent of tertiary educated viewers do not watch any Maltese stations.
Eight per cent of viewers claim that they are viewing other stations not mentioned in the questionnaire, presumably satellite TV stations. In fact other stations are mostly mentioned by more educated viewers whilst 28 per cent of viewers with a tertiary education mentioned TV stations not included in the questionnaire as their favourites.
Malta’s favourite programme
The BA survey can only give an indication on which is Malta’s favourite programme. When one considers the share enjoyed by each station on each particular day of the week, the April to June period’s highest audience share was registered by TVM on Thursdays.
TVM’s audience share reached a record peak of 32.81 per cent on Thursdays when Tista Tkun Int is aired at peak time. TVM’s second largest audience share is registered on Friday when Xarabank is aired.
In the January to March period TVM registered its peak audience share on Friday with 44 per cent. In the April to June period, TVM has its lowest audience shares on Saturdays Sundays and Mondays when only 22 per cent watched this station. The next worst day for TVM was Tuesday when TVM registered an audience share of 26 per cent. TVM’s flagship on Tuesday is discussion programme Bondiplus.
NET TV has the largest audience share on Mondays when it has 15 per cent of the audience share. Teleserial Ingroppi is NET TV’s peak time programme on Mondays.
Super One TV reaches its highest audience shares on Saturdays when it has more than 20 per cent of the audience share. Discussion programme Bla Agenda is screened on this day. These statistics are only indicative as they show the audience share of each station during the whole day and not during a particular time band.
Another indication is that TV viewership reaches a peak of 44.9 per cent on Friday after the eight ‘o’ clock news. While in the January to March period “the highest peak in TV viewing was reached on Monday evening” when “drama/plays are broadcast on main broadcasting stations,” the highest peak in TV viewing in the latest period was reached on Fridays after the 8 ‘o’clock news when popular TV programme Xarabank was aired on TVM. Apart from Xarabank on TVM, Living 360 on Net TV and Mona Lisa on Super One TV are also screened at this time on Fridays.
When asked which radio they had listened to on the previous day, 16.3 per cent of respondents mentioned Super One. The second most followed radio is the Church radio, RTK. Interestingly Capital Radio, a radio station more associated with commercial 1980s music than with the political message of Alternattiva Demokratika, the licence-owner of the radio station, has a greater audience than Radio 101.
Capital Radio also generates a greater sense of belonging than Radio 101. In fact 8.3 per cent consider Capital Radio as their favourite, a joint second with the religious RTK and the more upmarket and contemporary Bay Radio, a clear favourite among tertiary and post secondary educated people. Super One is the favourite among those with a primary level of education.
As for the new Calypso Radio line-up on the former A3FM frequency, the station is the favourite of just 0.4 per cent despitye a revamp and the inclusion of Eileen Montesin and Enzo Guzman in its line-up. Charles Polidano ic-Caqnu could stick to his role as Malta’s construction mogul. Becoming a media mogul seems to be out of his reach.
As a group community radios have also made a comeback especially in Gozo where community radios are more popular than all other radio stations. Surprisingly 31.6 per cent of Gozitans consider community radios as their favourite. This could be a sign of an affirmation of regional and localised identities over partisan loyalties.
jdebono@newsworksltd
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