Our media bouquet saw a bunch of colourful new arrivals in the past year. The future looks rosy for newspapers and radio but perhaps less so for magazines. In terms of broad media consumption, radio has increased its total listenership by two percent. Newspaper readership is up and, almost more importantly, its penetration is growing in rural areas. However, magazine consumption has dropped and its readership stabilised.
Here is a summary of the main findings of the All Media Products Survey (AMPS) for 2006, a survey measuring consumer perception and media usage.
Newspapers and magazines
Newspapers are proving doomsayers wrong. The consumption of newspapers is higher than magazines (42 percent versus 35 percent) and has grown by nearly three percent since 2004 while magazine consumption is down by one percent.
The big winners this year are the Daily Sun and Zulu-language newspaper Isolezwe – both showing dramatic increases in readership with the Daily Sun overtaking the Sunday Times as the most-read newspaper. Naspers’ dark horse now boasts a 3.679-million readership, nearly 400,000 readers more than the Sunday Times‘ 3.292-million.
The number of Isolezwe readers shot up from 494,000 last year to 648,000 in 2006 after expanding into Gauteng, with its readership in the province jumping from 6,000 last year to the current 26,000.
Media and socio-political analyst Jos Kuper says these papers speak directly to the working-class market and that is why they are so successful.
“No-one wants something that’s a hassle to read. This goes for content as well as form – people want compactness, and we’re seeing that come through in more and more media. I don’t think it has a negative social impact, since the publications clearly speak to their markets.
“The Zulu newspapers in KZN are doing exceptionally well, both Isolezwe, which caters for a more middle-class market, and Ilanga, which is more working-class. Even the big tabloids in the UK speak directly to their working-class markets, and that’s why they are so successful,” says Kuper.
The Western Cape and Gauteng have the highest penetration of newspapers with KwaZulu-Natal trailing behind in third place. Provinces with large rural areas such as the Free State and Limpopo have the lowest penetration – but readership in these places is rising, especially in Limpopo where newspaper penetration has increased by more than five percent since 2004.
In the magazine sector, the Western Cape has the highest penetration by far – more than 65 percent – with Gauteng in second place at nearly 45 percent and the Northern Cape close on its tail at nearly 44 percent.
Free State residents seem to be losing interest in magazines, with penetration there dropping from 40 percent in 2004 to around 29 percent this year.
General English magazines are the most popular reads followed by club magazines and then women’s magazines.
Magazine readership remained stable, with only Bona, Sunday Times Magazine and Reader’s Digest experiencing significant decreases. The Sunday Times Magazine dropped from 1.5-million readers to around 1.3 -million while Bona readership decreased from 1.9-million to 1.8-million.
TV Plus experienced significant gains, increasing its readership from 1.1-million to 1.359-million. Gossip magazine Heat has increased its readership to 339,000 while O, The Oprah Magazine saw its readership numbers leap from 370,000 to 463,000 in the past year. It has an average of 6.2 readers per copy.
“Our growth can be attributed to several factors: Firstly, we have strengthened the magazine editorially with a stronger South African voice. We have been collaborating with talented and unique South African writers who have brought more local resonance to The Oprah Magazine,” says editor Kgomotso Matsunyane.
“Instead of giving meaningless cover mounts, we give extra editorial that maintains the integrity of the brand – booklets that add value to our readers’ lives. In addition, our events have become the ‘must attend’ of the industry – each selling out in record time,” she adds.
Fourteen new magazines (see our article on new magazines on page XX) and five newspapers have been added to this year’s AMPS survey. The newspapers are: The Cape Town-based tabloid Daily Voice, the Monday-Thursday Son in the Western Cape and three weeklies – IlangaLangeSonto, Naweek Son and Umafrika.
Broadcasting
Radio remains king. Its total past seven day listenership has increased, mainly due to the rise of community radio. Nearly 80 percent of the population listen to radio, up from 78 percent in 2004.
However, the bigger players such as Jacaranda FM, Metro FM and YFM have lost listeners. Jacaranda saw a one percent drop since 2004, Metro FM listenership figures shrunk by 2.5 percent and YFM by 1.8 percent.
Jacaranda’s managing director Mike Siluma says there has been a “marginal shift” in radio stations but that commercial radio remains advertisers’ best option.
“This is based on the fact that commercial radio still offers programming and community related offerings that are far more impactful and wide reaching,” says Siluma.
Turning to television, about 66 percent of the population watches TV.
The most popular television channel is SABC 1 but it has seen a 2.3 percent drop in viewers (past seven days) while SABC 3 – the fourth-most popular channel – increased its viewership numbers by 1.5 percent. SABC 2 has remained stable while e.tv – the second-most popular channel – experienced a nearly three percent drop in viewership.
Five new television channels have been added to this year’s AMPS survey. They are: China Central TV-9, the Afrikaans music channel MK89, SuperSport7 on DStv, SuperSport8 on DStv and the French channel TV5.
Outdoor, cinema and the internet
The internet remains a medium accessible to only a fraction of South Africa’s population, with 6.4 percent of the total adult population (past four weeks) surfing the internet. It is mainly used by the higher LSM 8-10 income groups to search for information, play games, gamble, date, e-mail, chat, download music, shop and bank.
In outdoor advertising, the most popular medium remains store adverts but it has seen a four percent decrease since 2004, while advertising on minibus taxis has grown by four percent. The second-most popular outdoor advertising medium is billboards while train adverts remain the least popular.
Cinema attendance (past six weeks) stood at 6.5 percent in 2006. It is most popular in the 16-24 age bracket and the higher LSM 9-10 income groups.
The AMPS study
The rolling average data covers March to September 2005 fieldwork combined with the January to June 2006 fieldwork, with a total sample size of 24,813.
Current events that affected the fieldwork included local elections, electricity cuts in Cape Town, Tsotsi winning the Oscar for best foreign film, former deputy president Jacob Zuma’s rape trial, the security guard strike, the 2006 Soccer World Cup, Zuma’s acquittal and South Africa’s preparation for the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
Interesting facts revealed by AMPS
- The latest population figure stands at 47.4-million, an 18 percent growth since 1994 when it was 40.1-million.
- The average household income in 2006 was R4,761 per month, up from R2,435 per month in 1994.
- The majority of the population (45.8 percent) falls into the lower income LSM 1-4 groups, while 27.9 percent of South Africans fall into the LSM 5-6 groups, 13.5 percent in the LSM 7-8 groups and 12.8 percent in the high income LSM 9-10 groups.
- There is an upward trend in average income: the number of people in the lower LSM groups has shrunk by six percent since 2001 while the number of people in the highest LSM groups has increased by 12 percent since 2001.
- Education levels have increased steadily since 1995. In 2006, 84 percent of the population had completed matric, compared to only 66 percent in 1995.
- The number of people with no schooling has halved since 1995.
- Unemployment has dropped by three percent since 2004.
- More than 85 percent of the population now has access to electricity, compared to 61.3 percent in 1995.
- The use of cellphones has soared – a total of 49.4 percent of the population now use cellphones compared to a mere 2.4 percent in 1996. Meanwhile, the use of landlines has dropped from 30 percent in 1996 to 22.5 percent in 2006.
- Nokia is by far the most popular cellphone to own.
- An average of 3.5 percent of income is spent on cellphones.
- Vodacom has more than 7.8-million subscribers, MTN has more than 6.2-million subscribers and Cell C has 1.2-million subscribers.
- The most popular fast food outlet in South Africa is Kentucky Fried Chicken with consumers spending an average of R45 per visit.
- South Africans are a lazy bunch – 50 percent of men and 69 percent of women do not participate in sport.
- Gym and health club membership has since last year decreased by one percent to 11.6 percent.
- Nearly 65 percent of the population listens to gospel music.
- Holidays are becoming increasingly expensive. In 2003, 15.5 percent of the population went on one or more holiday trips. In 2006, the figure dropped to 12 percent.
- Shoprite is the favourite day-to-day retailer.
- The number of victims of violent crime has dropped from 6.7 percent last year to 5.9 percent in 2006. The number of victims of non-violent crime decreased from 12.4 percent last year to 11.7 percent in 2006.