Newspapers, free-to-air TV top 
consumer satisfaction rankings

SINGAPORE — Newspapers outranked other media services such as websites and television, in terms of consumer satisfaction with content quality, a study showed, while Mediacorp’s free-to-air TV and over-the-top platform (Toggle) also came out tops for content standards and reliability, respectively.

The annual Media Consumer Experience Study, released by the Media Development Authority (MDA) yesterday, found that overall satisfaction with media services rose last year.

Newspapers rose six places to top the ranks in quality of media content, with consumer satisfaction at 78.9 per cent. Websites and applications followed closely at 78.5 per cent and 78.1 per cent respectively, while magazines were the lowest ranked at 68.2 per cent.

In general, the satisfaction level for the quality of all media content rose from 73.3 per cent in 2014 to 74.8 per cent last year.

This is the fourth edition of the study, done between October and December 2015 with a sample size of 2,000 Singapore citizens and permanent residents aged 15 to 65.

The index score for last year indicates that generally, consumers were slightly satisfied or satisfied with the media services available in Singapore, MDA said. Overall, the media satisfaction index rose last year to 76.6 per cent, up from 75.7 per cent the year before.

In particular, there was also greater satisfaction with the variety of media content, as the satisfaction level went up to 74.5 per cent last year compared to 73.3 per cent in 2014.

Consumers were most satisfied with the variety of Internet content (79.3 per cent), followed by a tie between newspapers and StarHub TV at 77.8 per cent.

Mediacorp’s free-to-air TV also topped rankings in terms of consumer satisfaction for reliability of media services (80.6 per cent) and standards of local content (79.1 per cent), compared to pay-TV and other platforms.

Consumer satisfaction with media services hinges on five components: Quality of the receiving media, reliability of media services, variety of media content, quality of media content and customer service standards.

With more consumers accessing online content services, MDA also conducted its first Over-the-top Video Consumer Study to measure viewing habits and usage of online platforms that consumers access on their smartphones, tablets and connected TVs.

A total of 2,585 Singaporeans and permanent residents aged 65 and below were interviewed late last year for this study, which found that more than half of the respondents (54 per cent) have watched online videos — and this number was highest for millennials aged 15 to 34, at 89 per cent.

Dramas were the most popular online videos that adult consumers watched (40 per cent), followed by movies (25 per cent), sports (10 per cent), and entertainment and variety shows (8 per cent). For children, the most popular videos were in the animation and cartoon genre.

YouTube beat Facebook and Instagram as the most-used online video services at 96 per cent, compared to 59 per cent for the two social-networking platforms.

The study also found that younger viewers spent more of their time watching online videos compared to traditional TV, with children and millennials spending more than 60 per cent of their total viewing time on online videos. In contrast, adults aged 35 to 65 spent more than 40 per cent of their time on online videos.