TV viewership is not static, it’s dynamic, says Mindsight

The ongoing civil unrest in Egypt has had a profound effect on the TV viewership patterns, not just locally in Egypt, but across the Arab world. According to the latest findings from Mindsight’s (the research arm of Mindshare & MediaCom) continuous TV measurement survey, ‘Mashhad’, the average TV viewer is keenly following the events in Egypt on TV, resulting in a substantial surge in the rating points of the major news channels in the region.

A case in point is the meteoric rise in viewership in KSA for the main Arabic news stations like Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera, along with other stations like BBC Arabic and Al Ekhbariya.

During the normal course, MBC1 and MBC4 are the top performing stations on not just total population, but also Males and Females; however, the current events have caused a major upheaval in the prevalent status-quo. Although, MBC1 has successfully maintained its leadership position, MBC4 and MBC Drama have slipped down, with Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera emerging as the 2nd and the 3rd stations respectively. A closer look at the Mashhad data by dates, tells us that this trend took Al Jazeera to the most viewed TV station on the 28th January, with total GRPs of 330.

According to Mindsight MENA, this shift in viewership is even more prominent among the Males, with the total TV viewing time going up by as much as 25 minutes, as compared to an average day. During this period, Al Jazeera (with 243 GRPs), has overtaken MBC1 as the station of choice, while Al Arabiya ranks 3rd with 194 rating points. In fact, in the last week of January, Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya combine to capture a SOAT of nearly 30%, which is generally less than 10%. On the 30th January, Al Arabiya, Al Jazeera and Egypt Channel 1 were the top 3 stations amongst males, capturing nearly half of total TV viewership, with MBC1 securing only 107 GRPs, its lowest average in the recent years. Al Arabiya, on the other hand, captured close to 400 GRPs, which are the highest for the station since the escalation of events in Ghazza back in 2009.

The Mashhad monitoring data clearly shows that the Top programs in KSA, generally dominated by MBC1 and MBC4, have been seriously challenged by Jazeera and Arabiya, capturing 12 of the 20 highest rated TV shows among males. Another noticeable trend in male viewership is the significant increase in morning time TV viewership, which is much higher than the average day.

With such a sudden and fundamental change in the TV viewership across the region, advertisers need to be aware of such change and take quick decisions on their current activities; the marketers need to decide on how will they cope with this change, by shifting spends? Or postponing campaigns.

The constant monitoring and daily reporting of TV viewership by Mindsight, provides this edge to Mindshare and MediaCom planning/buying units, who in turn pass on the benefit of this knowledge to the respective clients to maximize the benefits and thereby the ROI.