Digital media consumption up, while TV and radio hold steady

SINGAPORE: Nielsen’s latest Media Index Report shows an upswing in digital media consumption.

Website, channelnewsasia.com saw year—on—year growth of 41,000 users (11.7 per cent) with the news website being accessed weekly by 392,000 people (9.7 per cent).

On an average monthly basis, more than four in 10 (42.7 per cent) aged 15 and above have watched videos, movies or television programs online (up 2.3 percentage points from last year).

More than a third (35.7 per cent) have also accessed news and current affairs and read e—newspapers online (up 4.3 percentage points from last year).

"We’ve seen major shifts in the media landscape in Singapore and globally in recent years due to rapid technological developments, high—speed internet access, WiFi, and increasing ownership of connected devices such as smartphones and tablets," said Rebecca Tan, Managing Director of Nielsen’s Media business in Singapore and Malaysia.

She added that with better infrastructure and even higher adoption of internet enabled devices, the number of users consuming content on digital platforms should grow.

"As it is, 7.5 per cent of adults indicated that they accessed XinMSN portal, which provides terrestrial channels 5, 8 and U programming, on an average weekly basis. Channelnewsasia.com also enjoys a strong online following of 9.7 percent weekly," Tan said.

"Our local media owners and content providers are already ahead of the curve and ready to meet the growing demand in future."

However, consumers still largely consume local audio and video content on traditional platforms like TV sets and FM radio.

Almost nine in 10 television viewers (89.9 per cent, down 1.7) continue to tune in to terrestrial TV channels (based on average weekly viewing).

MediaCorp’s Channel 8 continues to have the highest weekly reach among terrestrial channels (62.3 per cent) despite a slight dip of 3.2 percentage points.

MediaCorp’s Channel 5 reaches more than half (54.2 per cent, down 2.3 percentage points) of the general population.

MediaCorp’s Channel U maintained stable weekly viewership at 48 per cent while Channel NewsAsia reached 36.6 per cent, down 3.1 percentage points.

Reach of niche special interest and vernacular channel MediaCorp’s OKTO, which focuses on kids and lifestyle/arts related programmes, declined marginally to 16.2 per cent ,down 3.3 percentage points. MediaCorp’s Suria and Vasantham maintained reach of 11.5 per cent and 9.4 per cent respectively.

Lim Suat Jien, MediaCorp’s Managing Director for TV, said: "From April to October this year, we have actually also measured our viewership and compared with the preceding seven months, the viewership has continued to show an improvement. In fact, every week we receive an average three million viewership across all our seven channels. And this is possible because of increased engagement with our audience throughout all our MediaCorp platforms, plus improved viewership in our drama, variety programmes and our news and current affairs programmes."

MediaCorp’s TODAY grew its readership of hardcopy and digital (up 1.9 percentage points) to 18.1 per cent.

The free print edition of TODAY reached 16.8 per cent on an average daily basis (up 1.6 percentage points) while the digital edition reached 1.9 per cent (up 0.5 percentage points).

Walter Fernandez, Managing Director of MediaCorp Press and Editor of Today, said: "We have revamped our print edition and we are going to revamp our digital editions later this month. But more importantly, it’s focusing on the content, and making sure that what we deliver is insightful, is objective and is fair — that really is what has helped to grow our readership.

"Later this month, we are going to have a completely revamped website — new apps for our smartphones and tablet editions, that’s really going to change the way people consume our digital content and it will hopefully grow our readership even further in the year ahead."

MediaCorp’s magazines are also proving to be a hit. Readership for Elle rose by nearly 70 per cent, while Style’s increased by 28 per cent.

The Nielsen Media Index Report was conducted between July 2011 to June 2012 and surveyed 4,662 of the Singapore population aged 15 and above on their media consumption.

In another Nielsen survey, radio listenership remained steady over the past year with the majority of adults (93 per cent) tuning in to listen to the radio on a weekly basis.

More than nine in 10 listeners still tune in via traditional source — a FM receiver.

MediaCorp’s Class95FM remains the top English station (22 per cent) while Y.E.S 93.3FM remained top among Chinese stations (23 per cent).

Among other language stations, MediaCorp’s Warna 94.2FM registered 10 per cent listenership, Oli 96.8FM 6 per cent and Expat Radio 96.3XFM four per cent.

Nielsen’s Radio Diary Survey is an annual study of radio listening habits.

The latest study was conducted from March to May 2012 and involved 2,029 people.

— CNA/ck/sf/fa