A major new survey by Arab Advisors Group reveals that terrestrial TV still has a solid audience base in Lebanon with 93% of households watching terrestrial TV. Satellite TV is also popular with 75.8% of households stating that they own a satellite TV receiver. Moreover, radio listening is also wide spread in Lebanon with 82.0% of respondents tuning into radio: 52.0% of radio listeners listen to radio on a daily basis.
A new report, “Lebanon Media Survey 2007” was released by the Arab Advisors Group on February 3, 2008. The 69-page report, which has 104 detailed exhibits, provides the results of media usage patterns amongst cellular users’ households in Lebanon. The major survey probed each household’s media consumption habits and patterns related to Satellite TV, Terrestrial TV, Pay TV and Radio. The survey’s fieldwork was conducted between November 12 and December 1, 2007. The report provides statistical analysis of the results and insightful detailed cross tabulations. Please contact the Arab Advisors Group to get a copy of the report’s Table of Contents and the survey questions. Any investment in this report will count towards an annual Strategic Research Service subscription should the service be acquired within three months from purchasing the report.
The survey revealed that News is the most popular program type watched on television among respondents of all age groups. Moreover, 37.6% and 37.1% of respondents named LBC and Future TV –respectively- as one of five stations they watch most. The two Lebanese stations share was 8 percentage points higher than the nearest general channel competitor. This –the Arab Advisors Group believes- suggests that the attention these two channels pay to local Lebanese affairs, and their terrestrial broadcasts, have helped them in gaining the top two spots in the country.
“Our findings revealed that Terrestrial TV is alive and kicking in Lebanon while Sat TV gains a respectable following. Moreover, when asked where they get their daily news updates, 86.7% of the respondents surveyed in Lebanon cited the TV and 64.0% cited the radio. Newspapers followed both TV and Radio.” Mr. Issa Goussous, Arab Advisors Group Research Analyst wrote in the report.
The survey involved face to face interviews with 600 respondents from different households across Lebanon. Respondents were 15 years old and above, and were cellular service users. This random survey is of the current cellular users in Lebanon, and not the total population of the country. The random survey has a 99% confidence level with a less than 6% margin of error. The survey included 133 detailed questions. In surveying cellular users and their media consumption patterns, Arab Advisors Group always relies on the personal face to face interviews as it guarantees optimal representation and accuracy.
This face to face survey revealed that 37.8% of Lebanon’s urban cellular users do not use the Internet. This underlines the fact that the only way to reliably cover the cellular and broadcast media markets is through face to face surveys. Online surveys are suitable for analyzing Internet users and usage habits but remain inherently biased and non-indicative for more main stream markets such as cellular and broadcast markets.
