Free-to-air TV channels still grabbing most eyeballs with 85% viewership

SINGAPORE — Free-to-air television channels retained the lion’s share of TV viewership, with a total weekly viewership of 85 per cent, while six in 10 (66 per cent) tuned in to free-to-air TV daily.

In contrast, total weekly viewership for pay-TV stood at 52 per cent.

MediaCorp’s Channel 8 continued to capture the highest weekly viewership of 57 per cent, with four in 10 tuning in on a daily basis. Close to half (49 per cent) of its daily viewers were housewives. Channel 5 reached almost half (48 per cent) of the population weekly, with 20 per cent of adults in Singapore viewing daily, while Channel U saw 40 per cent viewing weekly, and 19 per cent viewing daily.

Channel NewsAsia reached 32 per cent of the adults in Singapore on a weekly basis, with professionals, managers, executives and businessmen (PMEBs) making up 41 per cent of its viewers. PMEBs also make up 58 per cent of those who visit channelnewsasia.com on an average weekly basis.

For pay-TV, close to two in five adults (37 per cent) watched StarHub TV weekly, and 19 per cent of adults watched SingTel mio TV weekly.

“Overall, video viewing is growing as people exercise their choice of programming ... While the majority of local TV remains viewed on a TV set, TV players similiarly recognise the need for on-demand via mobile or PC devices, providing services such as Toggle/XinMSN, StarHub TV Anywhere and mioTV apps,” said Ms Rebecca Tan, managing director of Nielsen’s Media Business in Singapore and Malaysia. KELLY NG