Infotrak is out with a new poll tracking TV viewership and radio listenership in Kenya.
Some interesting figures emerge, perhaps proving that even in the era of ‘cutting the cord’, millions of Kenyans are still getting their news and entertainment from traditional media.
From the poll, 72% of Kenyans said they still listen to radio, with only 28% saying they don’t.
As can be expected, Nyanza and Western regions have some of the highest rates of radio listenership, with 79% and 74% respectively. Rift Valley is also quite high at 77%.
Meanwhile, North Eastern, Coast and Central regions have the lowest rates, coming at 49%, 64% and 67% respectively.
Radio listenership is also roughly even among male and females. It is lowest among Gen Zs, and highest among those above 55 years.
When asked about awareness, Swahili radio stations rule the pack, with the top 5 stations in terms of awareness all broadcasting in Swahili. As expected, Radio Citizen still leads the pack, but of interest is new comer Radio47, which came in 3rd at 20% awareness.
That is only 6 points below the leader, yet the station is barely 1 year old.
The impressive rise of Radio47 can perhaps be attributed to its lineup. Right out of the door, the Cape Media owned station launched with some of the biggest names in Kenya such as Alex Mwakideu and Fred Arocho, giving listeners a sense of familiarity.
The station surprisingly beats the old guard in the Coast region, where it is the most popular station period, with 22% of listeners.
When it comes to TV viewership, Radio47’s sister station TV47 is also killing it, despite being relatively young in the market. The station now ranks ahead of established brands like KBC and K24.
As expected, Citizen TV is still king of the airwaves, but the SK Macharia owned station appears to be shedding the most viewers, with 17% of those polled saying that they stopped watching it.
That however appears to be an industry-wide problem affecting the old guard, as NTV and KTN also have 15% each of viewers stating that they stopped watching them.
TV47 on the other side has only 5% claiming they stopped watching.
It will be interesting to see how this ranking changes a year from now.
