The Status of Media Report 2020 launched by the Media Council of Kenya today has revealed that Citizen Television is leading by viewership at 35 percent followed by NTV Kenya at 13 percent. KTN Home (11%), KTN News (9%), KTN Burudani (1%) have a combined viewership of 21 percent. Inooro TV was ranked at 7 percent while K24, KBC, Switch, and Kass TV have 6, 5, 2, and 1 percent viewership respectively. The report indicates that there was a one percent increase in television viewership at 74pc as compared to 73 percent recorded in 2019. About 2 out of 5 people surveyed indicated that news is the most-watched program in their households. It was followed by music, soaps, movies, drama, politics, and sports in that order.
When it comes to radio, there was a notable drop in listenership with 74 percent being recorded this year as compared to last yearâs 84 percent. News is currently the most listed to program on the radio at 45 percent. Three Kiswahili radios accounted for 43 percent of the whole listenership in the country. Radio Citizen was ranked at 19 percent followed by Radio Jambo (14pc), Radio Maisha (10pc), Inooro FM, Kameme FM, and Milele FM all at 5 percent. Classic 105, Radio Taifa, Ramogi FM, and Musyi FM all at 3 pc while Kass FM, Kiss 100, and Chamgei FM were listed at 2 percent. Egesa FM, NRG Radio, KBC English Service, Ghetto Radio, Radio Nam Lolwe, Mulembe FM, Muuga FM, Hot 96, Gukena, Sulwe FM, and Capital FM were all ranked at 1 percent.
The readership for the print media stood at 25 percent, a slight increase of 2 percent from last year. Daily Nation is the most read newspaper at 47 percent followed by the Standard at 27 percent. Taifa Leo at 8 percent, The Star at 4 percent, The Nairobian at 3 percent, People Daily at 3 percent, and Business Daily ranked at 2 percent. Men were found to read the newspapers more than women.
The majority of respondents (51 percent) said they access newspapers by purchasing their own copies while 14 percent said they read the paper at social places such as restaurants and barbershops. 11 percent said they prefer to read newspapers online while 8 percent said they read them at the vendorâs selling point. 6 percent subscribed to the electronic papers.
Finally, on social media, the use of WhatsApp and Facebook was noted to have increased slightly at 36 percent and 35 percent respectively. The two platforms are the most preferred mediums of dissemination of information. Twitter was ranked at 10 pc, Instagram at 9 pc, YouTube at 7 pc while Snapchat closed at 1 pc. 39 percent of the surveyed respondents said they use social media primarily for networking.
Overall, there has been a marginal increase in the use of television, the use of radio had a significant drop, while social media usage and print readership had a slight drop and increase respectively. The council engaged a private survey company which then conducted interviews for 3074 respondents through computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI) and got a 98% response rate.  The data was processed and analyzed using the world’s leading statistical software SPSS 26, due to its high accuracy, quality, and reliability. Â
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