A recent survey revealed that the country’s two national news TV stations enjoyed a significant audience boost last month due to the broadcasts of a terrorist raid and the parliamentary plenary meeting on the Bank Century case.
AGB Nielsen Media Research over the weekend released its study on news TV program audiences in March, taken from male adult audiences aged over 40 in 10 major cities; Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan, Semarang, Banjarmasin, Makassar, Yogyakarta, Palembang, Denpasar and Bandung.
The study showed that daily, male news watchers of TVOne and MetroTV over the month grew to a 30,000 average, or 20 percent higher than in February.
AGB Nielsen public relations officer Andini Wijendaru said the March 3 plenary meeting at the House of Representatives on the Bank Century case boosted news TV audiences to 59,000 people that day, almost double the daily average.
“A day earlier, when the plenary turned ugly, 33,000 people watched news TV, or 10 percent higher than the March daily average,” she said.
The speech of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on the plenary result on March 4 surged news watchers to 43,000, 43 percent higher than the daily average.
The highest news TV audience was on March 9, when the police raided an Internet café in Pamulang, Tangerang, in Banten. Among the three terrorist suspects shot dead was Dulmatin, a suspect on the police’s most-wanted list.
“Between 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on the day, audiences of news programs reached 78,000 people,” Andini said.
The report of President Yudhoyono’s speech in Australia also contributed to the boost, Andini said.
Nielsen also concluded that people older than 50 were the age group who most watched TV.
“This group constituted for 14.6 percent of TV viewers, followed by the 40- to 49-year-old age group at 13.4 percent,” Andini said.
She added that older viewers not only watched TV most, but also for the longest duration.
“People in that group watched TV for an average of 3 hours and 14 minutes a day, while teenagers aged between 15 to 19 years only watched for 2 hours and 27 minutes on average,” Andini said.
The Pamulang raid broadcasts received the largest audience last month.
