There has been a significant increase in media accessibility in the country in the last five years since the digital migration according to the Media Landscape Report 2019 released on Wednesday.
The report by Reelforge East Africa’s foremost authority in the field of media monitoring intelligence in conjunction with and TIFA Research, an African based full market research company points out that the increase has been felt in both the population coverage and the number of TV channels available to viewers.
Prior to the digital migration, there were only 14 analogue TV Stations.
Ministry of ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru who inaugurated the report said that the government is committed to a free and fair media and as such they would continue to support passive audience research.
“We want the industry to thrive and we will continue to support and invest in new technologies to ensure that media services reach everyone,” he said during the launch in Nairobi.
The findings of the report show that digital migration has led to the emergence of new trends on media consumption with radio previously holding the highest proportion of audience in Kenya.
The radio audience has however declined gradually from 92 percent in 2017 to 66 percent in 2019 but continues to be the most consumed media source in the country.
“In 2019 we have an estimated 81 free to air TV channels and that is close to six times the number of TV channels we had in 2013/14). This has obviously had an impact on audience numbers for these platforms also points out that advertising expenditure remains the primary source of revenue for the media,” said Reelforge Director, Andrew Akeye.
TV and online audiences on the other hand have increased slightly from 50 percent and 30 percent respectively over the same period.
Increase on TV has mainly been driven by availability of more stations and the availability of this medium on different platforms including set-top-boxes and the online.
“Today we have more than 4.5 million set top boxes, more than quadrupling the audience figures for TV. Also noteworthy is the entry of Netflix in Kenya in 2016 with projected subscribers of about 15,000 in 2019. Online audiences are also growing rapidly, in part due to the extended coverage of 3G and 4G networks coupled with a massive decline in smart phone prices, and in part because of demographic changes. Significantly more content is being pushed on-line,” Akeye explained.
Daily newspaper circulation has been on the decline since the digital migration with local dailies recorded a 33 percent decline in circulation between 2013 and 2018, noted the report.
JK/as/APA