With more homes in South Africa having TV sets than ever before, TV viewing and the available weekly audience has grown again - and significantly - in the latest AMPS June 2012, the All Media and Products Survey released by the South African Audience Research Foundation (Saarf).
The latest AMPS, a survey released twice annually, is important since its the benchmark for advertisers, ad buyers and ad planners as to what media reach is available, how significant it is and what platforms they're going to channel that all-important marketing budgets and ad spending to.
Newspaper and magazine reading in South Africa continues its overall slide down, but as traditional paper products decline, online reading grows (you're reading this story here, after all) and television viewing in South Africa remains buoyant with TV viewing which has grown significantly, with weekly viewership in South Africa rising from 90,8% to 91,7%%.
It means that 91,7% of South Africans watch television at least once a week and that TV in South Africa now reaches 32,022 million South Africans (aged 15 and older) each week.
Significant more homes have TV sets in South Africa: up from 87% to 88,6% with gains in small urban and rural areas, KwaZulu/Natal in particular. Having a TV in working order is also up, from 86,5% to 87,8%.
All three SABC TV stations, SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3 are trending up and e.tv is showing significantly increased viewership in AMPS June 2012.
Pay TV in South Africa is also showing significant growth with huge growth by DStv and TopTV holding steady. The viewing of community TV channels in South Africa is flat, reaching 8,6% of South Africa's adult population or 2,99 million viewers each week. SowetoTV which can be seen on DStv on channel 251 is the massive winner here which reached 7,7% of adults each week.
SABC1's viewing increased to 79,8% (meaning 27,86 million viewers aged 15 and older have watched SABC1 within the past 7 days.)
SABC2 viewing increased to 71,6% (25 million viewers)
SABC3 grew to 58,4% (20,38 million viewers with growth in Gauteng)
e.tv has grown its reach from 67,4% to 68,6% currently (23,98 million viewers). The channel gained eyes in especially small urban and rural areas, in the Free State and KwaZulu/Natal and under men (34-39).
M-Net (DStv 101) has grown to 6,8% (2,38 million viewers) with increases in the Western Cape.
Satellite TV and pay-TV in South Africa is continuing its significant growth. DStv's weekly reach rose from 26,3% (9,19 million adults) to 27,5% (9,598 million adults). TopTV remains stable on 1,5% with 513 000 weekly viewers.
