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22 October 2009
Singapore
If there’s one area that’s impervious to the economic conditions, it has to be consumers’ media consumption habits, as verified by findings from the latest Nielsen Media Index survey. The onslaught of the global economic recession in the past year has not had a significant impact on consumers’ media consumption habits, with traditional media consumption levels maintained, while the Internet has continued to thrive in the challenging environment.
According to the latest annual Media Index report from The Nielsen Company, which surveyed 4, 687 adults aged 15 and above in Singapore from July 2008 – June 2009, consumption of newspapers, television, cable, magazines, and radio have remained stable, while the Internet saw considerable growth.
Internet
The Internet has further widened its reach amongst adults in Singapore. Today, almost three in five (59%) adults go online on a daily basis - an increase of three percentage points compared to a year ago. Internet usage has jumped four percentage points amongst the young to mature (15-54 years old) while remaining stable among the older group aged 55 and above.
Newspapers
Print readership remains healthy in light of the economic backdrop, with any daily readership maintaining at three-quarters (75%) of the local population.
Paid papers did well to sustain their respective readership, whereas free papers gained popularity during this belt-tightening period with readers turning to them not as substitutes but as complimentary sources of information.
“More people who are reading paid papers are reading the free papers as well. The free papers have also attracted other English paper readers, especially the bilingual My Paper which was launched with the aim of giving English readers more exposure to the Chinese language,” noted Ms Rebecca Tan, Executive Director for Media Group, The Nielsen Company Singapore.
Overall, My Paper registered an increase (+2.6 % points) to reach eight percent of the population daily while Today has also grown (+1.6% points) to achieved 18 percent average daily readership. In terms of readers’ profiles, Today grew among those aged 25 and above by 2.6 percent, while My Paper gained readers across all age groups. Both also managed to garner 4.9 percent more PMEB readers.
Overall English newspaper daily readership maintains at 49 percent. The Straits Times, the top read daily, retains its 38 percent of readership while The New Paper (TNP) held steady at 14 percent. TNP remains the paper for the young with three in 10 of TNP readers aged between 15-24, The Business Times stood at three percent, maintaining its predominantly PMEB readership (80% of its total readership).
Close to three in 10 (29%) adults read at least one Chinese newspaper. Readership of Zaobao stabilizes at 15 percent, while Wanbao and Shin Min both reach 11 percent. Readership of all three Chinese papers remain stable from last year.
Berita Harian and Tamil Murasu continue to maintain six percent and one percent average daily readership respectively.
Online Local dailies Readership
An increasing number of adults in Singapore are continuing to take up reading of newspapers online. According to Nielsen Media Index, Any Online Daily Readership in the past week has grown by two percentage points to reach 11 percent of adults.
Local online daily, Straits Times Online has done well (+1.3%) this year to reach four percent of the population, with the increase coming mainly from existing hardcopy readers and across a broad age spectrum from 15 to 54 year olds.
Online versions of Lianhe Zaobao and Today both reach two percent readership respectively, while The New Paper, Business Times and My Paper reach one percent.
“Apart from ST online, we’re also seeing growth from other online titles like Today and The New Paper. Our findings show that increase in online newspaper reading is contributed mainly by readers in the 15 to 54 age group, which registered a significant three percent increase. Between the local dailies with both print and online editions, majority of readers are still exclusive hardcopy readers or reading both--exclusive readership of the online edition is still small,” Ms Tan highlighted.
Magazines
Magazines have managed to hold up their performance in the past year and continue to retain their niche and followers to turn in satisfactory report cards.
Entertainment news junkies continue to turn to their Chinese and English entertainment weeklies for their regular fix. Chinese weeklies I-Weekly and UW maintain their reach at six percent and five percent readership respectively, while their English counterpart 8-Days continues to be read by four percent of the local population.
Women’s magazines also manage to retain their loyal following with Her World (5%), Cleo (4%), Female (4%), Women’s Weekly (3%) and Simply Her (2%) being the most popular titles. Elle, Shape, Style, and Nuyou (Chinese) all garner one percent of readership.
Television and Cinema
Even in times of economic recession, television audience still requires their regular dosage of entertainment, variety, and/or news, as seen by consumers’ unaffected television viewing habits.
Close to eight in 10 (78%) adults on average continue to tune in to terrestrial TV on a daily basis.
Channel 8 remains the station with the highest viewership at 49 percent. Together with Channel U and Channel 5 who held their respective forts with average daily reach at 32 percent and 28 percent respectively, these channels were the three most watched terrestrial channels.
Channel News Asia, stable at 22 percent, remains the top choice among the Professionals and Managers segment, reaching two in five (42%). Maintaining its average daily reach at seven percent, Suria is still the top channel among the Malay community, reaching three in five of people in that segment.
What previously was Central has split into standalone Okto and Vasantham, and both of these specialised channels have done well to garner six percent and four percent average daily viewership respectively. OKTO is watched by 10 percent of the 15-24 age group, who now make up a third of its audience (34%). On the other hand, Vasantham reaches 45 percent of the Iocal Indian population, who form more than nine in 10 (93%) of its audience.
Half of the adult population has access to cable TV and cable continues to attract 38 percent of local adult viewers on a daily basis, and close to half (48%) on a weekly basis.
“In times of recession when saving money and cost cutting becomes crucial, stay at home activities like turning to the media such as print, television, or radio becomes an attractive option as it is inexpensive and readily available,” said Ms Tan.
Big-screen viewership, similar to small-screen, has also maintained. Media Index findings show that average weekly cinema visits has remained stable at 11 percent, PMEBs and Students remain the core audience segments, each group forming three in 10 of weekly cinema-goers, although the recession has seen a dip in visits from the Students segment this year (-5.7% to 26% of Students)
Radio
Over nine in 10 (95%) adults in Singapore continue to tune in to listen to a radio station on a weekly basis.
According to the 2009 Nielsen Radio Diary survey Wave 1, Class 95FM maintained its top spot among English stations with 23 percent audience reach, followed by Gold (13%), 987FM (10%) and 938LIVE (9%). Power 98FM (8%) and 91.3 (5%) round off the top six English stations.
Among the Chinese stations, YES 93.3FM manages to retain its title as the top Chinese station and overall top radio station with 27 percent of the population having tuned in to the station in the past week. Close competition continues between Capital 95.8 (21%) and Love 97.2FM (21%), as Capital gained listeners to tie with Love for second spot. 100.3 (8%) saw an increase of two percentage points to take fourth spot while 883JiaFM (7%) maintained its stable listener base.
Among other languages stations, Ria (8%) gained listeners by two percentage points, while Warna (12%), Oli (7%) and EXPAT RADIO Xfm 96.3 (3%) all remained stable.
Public Transport
With Singapore’s efficient and well-connected public transportation network, people are continuing to ride buses, MRT, and use taxis. Overall public transport usage remains stable, with the exception of taxis which shows a small decline to 23 percent.
“Our findings reveal a dip (-3.3%) in people taking taxis, and this can likely be attributed to the fare hike by various cab companies early in 2008, compounded by consumers tightening their belts amid the recession ,” said Ms Tan.
MRT and public bus usage remain stable at 53 percent and 64 percent respectively
About Nielsen Media Index
Nielsen Media Index, a syndicated survey, is the print currency for media owners and advertising agencies. It provides demographic, lifestyle and general media consumption information on the adult population aged 15+ in Singapore. Results are weighted by age, sex, race to represent the 3,796,000 people living in Singapore aged 15 and above. The latest Nielsen Media Index survey interviewed 4,687 respondents representative of the Singapore population.
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