Maltese spend almost 2 hours a day watching TV

The average Maltese person spends 1.8 hours a day watching television and 3.04 hours listening to the radio, according to the Broadcasting Authority audience assessment for July. 

Compared to previous assessments, the numbers show the amount of time spent watching television decreased by just two minutes compared to Febrary 2015 and a five-minute decrease to July 2015.

In July, the national average for TV viewing among the population aged 12 years and over stood at 0.97hrs, according to the survey.

TVM remained the most popular station with 36.6%, followed by ONE with 18.1%, and Net TV with 8.1%.  Overall, 66.2% of all viewers followed a local station while the other 33.8% followed a foreign station with Canale 5 (5.2%), Rai 1 (4.1%)and Italia 1 (3.2%) being the most popular stations.

From a total of 100 programmes named by respondents, drama programmes appeared to be the most popular, garnering 42.4% of preferences, the assessment found. This was followed by News (17.3%), and discussion programmes (7.9%). The three most quoted programmes were  TVM News which was quoted by 10.2% of respondents, followed by Ċaqqufa, which got 9.5%, Strada Stretta which got 9.1% and Katrina which got 8.4%. 

In the month under review, an average of 194,000 persons, meaning 49.7% of the population aged 12 and over said they followed at least one television station.

When it comes to radio, an average of 198,400 persons, or 50.8% of the population aged 12 years and over, stated they had listened to radio.

Radio listeners tune in for a total of 3.04hrs on average, 14 minutes higher than that registered for the same month last year, and 33 minutes higher than that registered for the previous assessment period of February 2016.

Bay Radio remained the most popular station with 25.7% of all radio listeners followed by ONE Radio (16.7%) and Radju Malta (9.6%). Bay Radio was popular with those under of 50 whereas ONE Radio was mostly listened to by older people.