AMPS 2003A - television and cinema

TV viewership continues to trend upwards, but only one station shows the benefit of this. Cinema attendance remained stable.

18 Sep 2003

Television is no longer measured with radio in the RAMS diary. To provide an overall picture of media in South Africa however, SAARF has released this limited information on television viewing, from SAARF AMPS. The industry should note that SAARF TAMS is the official TV currency. Total TV viewership ("Yesterday") has remained stable, but is showing an upwards trend. Current viewership is at 20.023-million, or 67.3% of the adult population in South Africa.

Viewing time is up, but not significantly. According to SAARF TAMS, people watch on average 3.01 hours a day (up slightly from 2.55 hours in 2002), and 21.07 hours a week (up from 20.25 hours last year).

Three stations showed significant changes in penetration.

e.tv - this station continues to grow its penetration in South Africa. Its "Yesterday" viewing grew significantly over the past survey, from 32.9% to 34.9%, with a current viewership of 10.386-million. Upward shifts occurred in metros, rural areas, KwaZulu-Natal, North West, Johannesburg, in both males and females, 16-34, and LSM 3 and 6.

M-Net's Main Service showed a significant decline over AMPS 2002B. Viewership is down to 1.745-million, a drop from 6.7% to 5.9% (DStv viewing continues to trend upwards, but not significantly). The station showed declines across metros, large urban areas, Western Cape, Cape Town, both males and females, 16-24, and LSM 7 and 9.

SABC 2 is also down significantly, from 29.2% in AMPS 2002B to 27.4%, with a total audience of 8.170-million. These declines were seen in large urban areas, Gauteng, on the Reef, amongst males, 35-49, and LSM 3-4 and 7. The station has however, significantly grown its LSM 9 audience.

Profile changes

Total TV - up in the North West.

DStv - up in LSM 10.

SABC 1 - up in the North West.

Cinema

Cinema is again the picture of stability, with audience levels and profiles remaining statistically unchanged over the previous survey. Bear in mind that AMPS does not measure the cinema-going habits of the under-16s, a significant part of cinema's audience.

Past 7 days - 1.4% penetration (424 000 attendees)

Past 14 days - 2.7% (804 000 attendees)

4 week average over 12 months - 5.9% (1.745-million attendees)

Source: For the complete AMPS 2003A data, visit the SAARF website at www.saarf.co.za.