Royal Media Services and Nation Media Group dominate the local media scene, according to a survey by research group Ipsos Synovate. The national survey targeted listeners aged above 15 years.
In the first quarter of 2012 (January-March), Citizen TV had a viewership of 52.1 percent among those surveyed, up from 51.6 in the previous quarter. KTN was distant second, with 13.6 percent viewers, followed by NTV (12.3), KBC (10.7), Kiss TV 2.7 and K24 (2.0).
Citizen still led in the rural areas (49.2) and in towns (51.7), followed by KTN (15.3 and 13.4).
Among radio stations, Radio Citizen led with 49.7 percent overall, trailed at a distance by KBC Radio Taifa (25), Milele FM 24.8 (QFM 16.6) and Radio Jambo (16.4), closing the list of the top five.
Regionally, Radio Citizen was top in Nairobi (45.2), followed by Kiss FM (34), Classic FM (33.6), Milele FM (29.2) and Kameme FM (20.9).
But Classic FM was the most listened to station in Nairobi between 5am and 11am. Radio Citizen dominated in the afternoons, early evening and on weekends.
In Central Kenya, the top radio was Royal Media’s Inooro (56.2). Next came Kameme FM (41), KBC’s Coro FM (38), Kiss (FM 15.7) and QFM (13.5).
The most popular radio station in Lower Eastern was Musyi FM (68.9), followed by Citizen (43), Mbaitu (29) Syokimau FM (25) and Radio Jambo (19).
Muuga FM led in Upper Eastern (75 percent). It was trailed by Citizen (53), Milele (30.8), Kameme (21.7) and Kiss (21.5).
In western region, 72 percent of those surveyed listened to Radio Citizen. West FM was next in popularity with 54 percent. The others in the top five were Milele (46.9), KBC (40) and Jambo (35).
In the Rift Valley, Radio Citizen led with 73.4 percent, followed by Kass FM (52.3), Chamge (49.1), QFM (29) and KBC (23).
The figures for the lake region were: Royal Media’s Ramogi FM (85), Citizen (49) Namlolwe (32), Milele (31.8) and Radio Lake Victoria (30.5).
In South Nyanza the top five were: Royal Media’s Egesa FM (25.6), Citizen (25.3), QFM (11), Milele (10.4) and KBC’s Minto FM (6.9).
At the coast, Citizen was top with 38.4 percent, followed by Bahari FM (37), Kaya FM (35.9), Pwani (29.3) and Baraka (28.6).
In north eastern Kenya, most people listened to KBC (66), followed by BBC (57), KBC North Eastern (51), Radio Star (44.1) and Risala (36.2).
Finally in north western region, the top radio was KBC (77) followed by Citizen (41.6), KBC English (26), West FM and Milele.
Among newspapers, Daily Nation was by far the most read publication, with 87 percent of the respondents preferring it. Standard was read by 49 percent, followed by Taifa (21), the Star (10) and The People (2).
Sunday Nation was read by 57 percent of the respondents and Sunday Standard by 15 percent. Saturday Nation had 32 percent and Standard on Saturday 15 per cent of the total readership sampled.
In terms of gender, 88 percent of the men and 84 percent women preferred Daily Nation compared to Standard’s 50 percent men and 45 percent women.
A rather surprising finding was that most people are unlikely to borrow a copy of The People newspaper. Only 57 percent of the readers buy their own copy. Daily Nation is the most borrowed, with 40 percent only reading their own
