Mediascope presents Roskomnadzor 2019 TV audience survey report

17.02.2020

Mediascope published a 2019 annual audience survey report. The report presents numbers of TV-viewers among inhabitants of Russian cities with the population of more than 100 000 people older than 4 years old. In 2019, the report for the first time included data on TV-viewing in the countryside (being commercially delivered since 1 August 2019).

TV is still the media with the highest reach in Russia. In 2019, 98% of those who live in large Russian cities over the age of 4 switched the TV on at least once a month. 68% of the population did it daily. Over the past three years there hasn’t been a significant change in reach rate.

That said, there was a decrease in average daily viewing time: in 2017, it was 242 minutes a day, in 2018 - 230 minutes, in 2019 - 220 minutes (taking in account countryside TV-viewing). According to Eurodata TV, time of linear TV-viewing decreases worldwide. And, compared to other countries, in Russia the decrease rate is one of the slowest one. In 2019, the viewing time was decreasing slower - particularly because the data on TV audience was complemented by the data on the countryside TV-viewing. On average, annually countryside TV-viewing adds 8 % to the total TV-viewing time.

The older viewers are, the longer they watch TV. In 2019, viewers older than 54 years old spent 359 minutes a day (on average) watching TV, viewers at the age of 35-54 spent 221 minutes, children aged 4-17 years old - 107 minutes, and people aged 18-34 years - 132 minutes.

Among all federal districts, TV is most watched in the Far Eastern Federal District: in 2019, average daily TV-viewing time among the whole population older than 4 years old amounted to 248 minutes. And inhabitants of the Northern Caucasian Federal District spent least time watching TV: the number of this district was 200 minutes.

“Russians are more into watching TV content on secondary displays. In order to measure this audience Mediascope made a number of important steps over the past few years: the company started commercial deliveries of data on desktop (desktop computers and laptops) TV-content and advertising in large cities - the Big TV Rating project. Then, within the project, we combined the panel and the counter data. The numbers show that the increase in viewing on secondary displays is not big on average, but by certain age groups and TV shows it can reach 30-40 %. In fall of 2018, the company also started delivering to TV channels the data on the audience that uses mobile displays to consume TV content. Data is collected with the counter and covers all population of Russia”, said Ksenia Achkasova, COO of Mediascope.

Roskomnadzor deputy head Vadim Subbotin said that taking into account the current trend for the growth of video content consumption in the digital environment, one of the most pressing issues is the creation of a single universal system for measuring audience in all environments. “We are working on that.”

According to the adopted amendments to the federal laws “On Mass Media” and “On Advertising”, from 2017, an authorized company, which is elected by Roskomnadzor for a term of three years, should carry out annual studies of TV channels audience.