The COVID-19 pandemic has forced Kenyans to stay at home more. This has led to an increase in the number of people watching TV and a GeoPoll study confirms this.
According to GeoPoll, the average television viewership in Kenya increased by 335,000 viewers from 6.76 million to 7.09 million. This is attributed to the Government’s measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. this data was for overall media consumption from 1st to 29th March 2020 and for TV viewership between 6 am and midnight.
The first COVID-19 case was announced on 13th March 2020 and the viewership generally increased around the board. Citizen TV is the leader, where they gained 159,000 viewers to a total of 2.045 million viewers. KTN News was the second highest gainer where they gained 110,000 viewers to be 4th overall. KTN lost 34,000 viewers and fell one place to 3rd overall after 16th March 2019. Another big change was Al Jazeera, where they gained 35% more viewers to 226,000 viewers total.
RADIO
Interestingly enough, radio listenership was a contrast to TV viewership for the period surveyed. There was a general decline in listeners on all stations except Radio Citizen, which gained 115,000 listeners. GeoPoll notes that the available radio audience in the first 2 weeks of March 2020 was 10.79 million, but this audience dropped by 66,000 listeners between 16th and 29th March. T
GeoPoll attributes shift in radio audiences, especially on the 6 am-8 am timeslot due to people starting off their days later than normal. Also, they attribute it to the fact that people are not on the go, so radio has to compete with various other media channels.
The average drop is minor but in general, radio still scores a bigger audience in Kenya than TV, even with the shits in consumption behaviour due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
