TV a less watched king, survey says

MANILA, Philippines – Television continues to lord it over all media in the Philippines, but Filipinos are watching less of it as a result of changing lifestyles and habits, a media poll group said Friday.

“It’s still true that TV is king. That’s (going to) be true and clear for the next couple of years still because the Filipino’s passion for television is very strong. You’ll see, however, that there is slight decline…” Jay Bautista, Nielsen Media executive director, said in reference to lower viewership.

The finding was part of his presentation on The Philippine Media Landscape at the Mandarin Oriental in Makati.

TV’s reach as a medium went down from 95% in 2008 to 92% last year. These percentages represent responses of Nielsen interviewees during these periods. In a study covering the last three quarters, TV viewership was at 91%.

The numbers were according to the Nielsen Media Index which studies media exposure, product usage and lifestyle of Metro Manila and national urban Philippine consumers.

The survey also covered 21 key cities in the Philippines and used the face-to-face interview methodology. At least 2,000 people aged 10 and up from all socio-economic classes were asked.

“The main insight that we gathered on the decline on TV viewing time was the change in lifestyle among Filipino consumers. Things like living farther and farther from their work place, the BPO (business process outsourcing) culture, spending time on school… having more social activities, etcetera, is taking away time from people,” Bautista said.

Especially prevalent among the low income groups is the tendency for people to watch from the neighbor’s television. “The option now is that were seeing a percentage of the population watching TV in their kapitbahay. They watch TV other than (in) their own home… This is prevalent among the low income groups… The overwhelming location is other people’s homes.”

Meanwhile, Nielsen Audience Measurement Philippines’ client service director Roberto de Belen said several other factors may be behind the decline in viewership.

He said it is possible that people are trying out new media, or have, as previous studies have shown, been avoiding watching TV to save on rising cost of electricity.

Number of hours in a day spent watching TV also went down. In 2008, people surveyed said they watched 8 hours and 6 minutes. This year, people said they watch 7 hours and 36 minutes daily.

More TV

Interestingly, Nielsen found that more people are buying television sets.

“When it comes to ownership we see an increasing trend… Filipinos continue to buy and take ownership of TV sets,” Bautista said. Also, it seemed that the number of people owning more than one TV in their house is increasing.

“We’re seeing the increase in terms of homes having… more than 2 TV sets across the country,” he said.

TV ownership grew across all surveyed areas, and has gone up to 94% of people surveyed in 2010, up 4% from the 2008 figure.
Luzon registered the most multi-set TV homes, while Visayas registered the lowest TV ownership at 86%, although this represented a 2% growth from 2008.

Media shift

Numbers for online media continue to rise.

Between 2007 and 2009, Internet usage grew from 23% to 33%, making the Philippines among countries with the highest growth in terms of Internet usage in the past 3 years in the Asia-Pacific region.

Usage is driven by the 29-and-below age group.

Also, “Internet is not only Metro Manila-centric, although (Manila) is 40%. All across the major cities Internet (usage) continues to rise, and although we are a country of Internet cafes we see trend in private access going up,” Bautista said.

Internet usage from cafes went down from 71% last year to 69% this year, while home access went up from 27% to 31% for the same periods.

Media companies have begun to take notice of the Internet’s upward popularity trend, and they have started to find ways for online and mobile to complement traditional media, Bautista said.

But “as to how high it will reach? It will depend on the profile of our population,” he said of the Internet’s growth potential opposite changes in the economic and demographic profiles of its audience.

“The end goal we haven’t seen yet,” he said. –Arlene Burgos, tvpatrol.abs-cbnnews.com