This archive report was first published on 2 August 2019.
Kenya's television market is witnessing a shift in viewership trends, with newer entrants slowly gaining ground on established players. According to a survey by the Kenya Audience Research Foundation (KARF) for the first quarter of 2019, Citizen TV remains the most popular television channel in the country.
Released in March 2019, the survey shows that Citizen TV, owned by Royal Media Services, had a commanding lead in both national and regional viewership, except in Central Kenya where it faced stiff competition from Inooro TV, its sister vernacular station.
According to the report, Citizen TV controlled 21.3% and 21.5% of the national daily TV reach in February and March respectively, followed by KTN News at 6.6% and 6.4%, NTV at 6.3% and 6%, while KTN Home came in third at 5.3 and 5.1%, followed by Inooro TV and K24.
The most interesting trend is on market share, where Citizen TV leads with 34.4% of the TV market nationally, followed by Inooro TV at 9.3%. This gives Royal Media Services a combined market share of 43.7%.
However, the survey has been a sticky issue in media circles, with some questioning the methodology used by KARF and others accusing the organization of being influenced by Royal Media Services to tilt the results in its favor.
NTV, owned by Nation Media Group, comes third with 8.9%, while Standard Group's KTN News and KTN rank at 8.7% and 8.6% respectively as Ebru TV comes fifth with 4.9%. KTN is certainly suffering from cannibalism from its sister 24-hour news station, KTN News, as Ebru scraps up the pecking order.
The survey also shows that there are 467 TV stations in the Kenyan market, with 66 of them being local. Other TV stations are emerging on the digital platform, and radio continues to be the most popular medium in the country, with high penetration levels.
According to the survey, there has been a significant growth of community radio stations, which has increased the geographical footprint compared to other media platforms. The Kenyan market currently has 356 radio stations and growing.
Access to newspapers remains low, with an average 9.5% of those interviewed reading a newspaper. As at the time, there were 44 newspapers in Kenya and 62 magazines.
