State-owned television station retains top position amongst viewers

Bay Radio and TVM continue to dominate the airwaves across Malta and Gozo as the Broadcasting Authority's quarterly assessment reconfirms both stations as the dominant players on radio and television stations respectively.

Although a decrease of 2.5% in radio listeners was registered between April and June when compared to the first three months of this year, Bay Radio retained its pole position.

More popular with females (22.4%) than males (20%), Bay Radio captured the highest percentage of all those aged under 50%.

Second to Bay Radio comes Labour-owned One Radio, securing 14% of the total audience, compared to Bay's 21%. It also enjoyed the highest percentage of all those aged between 50 and 79, the second highest of all those over 80 years old and the third highest of all those in the 30-49 age group.

Radju Malta came in third while Rajdu Marija was the most followed station by those aged over 80. Magic Radio was the second most followed station for 12-14 and 30-49 age brackets.

Going by districts, Bay Radio was the most tuned-in radio station in four districts while One Radio was the most tuned-in radio in the South Eastern.

State-owned TVM remained the most preferred station by gender, by age groups and by district.

Labour-owned One TV was the second most followed station with a total of 20.70%, while PN-owned Net TV was the third most followed station with 9.16% of all TV-viewers.

Excluding other TV stations, Italia 1, Rai 1 and Canale 5 were the most foreign watched stations.

The average amount of hours spent by TV viewers was 6.4% lower than that registered for January-March 2013 and was 24% less than that registered during the same period last year.

Family drama F'Salib it-Toroq was the most popular programme on TVM, followed by Xarabank and TVM news. The audience assessment also confirmed Maltese's preference to drama programmes, followed by news and current affairs programmes.

The second most watched drama was One TV's il-Klikka followed by TVM's D.R.E.A.M.S., One TV's comedy Klassi Ghalina and Prima Facie and Zafira on TVM.