In early November the NGOs Internews Armenia and Center of Social Technologies summarized the findings of panel diary survey of the audience of the TV channels present on the Armenian air. The survey was conducted from July 16 to August 12, 2001, and covered 436 families (1844 respondents), residing in Yerevan and 12 other cities and townships of Armenia. The panel itself was represented by 485,000 households owning TV sets.
Considering the specifics of TV channel receipt when analyzing the audience of the whole country, the channels whose broadcast zone covers the whole or practically the whole territory of Armenia were selected into a separate group. These are the Public Television of Armenia, private “Prometheus” TV company and the Russian RTR. At the same time significant competitiveness of the local television was revealed – a fact that in the opinion of the researchers should begin attracting advertisers. Thus, in the second largest city of Armenia Gyumri (the administrative center of Shirak region) the local channels “Shant” and “Tsayg” are competing for 30-40% of the audience.
The research determined the leader programs of each week. Certain general trends of TV viewing show that when choosing a program for daily consumption the audience prefers the entertaining function of the TV – the TV series (especially those with Armenian dubbing) and motion pictures as well as is interested in purely informational programs.
The morning prime time for all channels is located in the interval of 10.00-12.00 and gathers from 4% to 10% of the day’s TV audience. The vast majority of the viewers prefers evening time (18.00-23.30), when certain programs (TV series, motion pictures) may collect over 30% of the day’s audience.
The research authors believe that the channels are competing for the average TV viewer, betting mostly on the TV series and motion pictures. Such programming policy may soon exhaust itself. The researchers think that an effective form of competition for the TV viewer may be the orientation of the TV channel on specific target audience, with the segmentation made on socio-demographic characteristics and the interests.
A similar research was conducted by Internews Armenia and Center of Social Technologies in May, 2000, and the plans are to have annual media measurements of this kind.
