TV Polls Results Out; UTV Tops Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi

The results of a scientific survey on television viewership in Ghana released at the end of the first quarter of 2016 has United Television (UTV) emerging as the most watched television station in Accra, Kumasi and Takoradi.

The survey was conducted by Ipsos, a global market research specialist company, and had statistics from all television stations in Ghana for every single minute, hour and day in the entire month of March 2016.

The outcome and publication of the monthly surveys have often generated some discomfort for the owners of television stations which turn out to have lesser viewership.

In the first week of March for instance, the results of the Ipsos survey on how the televisions shared their audience in terms of percentages showed that in Kumasi UTV was the most watched television station, leading with 28%, while TV3 followed with 19%, Crystal Xtra with 9% and surprisingly GTV and GhOne having  8% each. Metro TV and Light TV also had 5% each.

The other stations shared the rest of the percentages.

For week two in Kumasi the results were: UTV 29%, TV3 20%, Crystal Xtra 10%, GTV 8%, Adom TV 6%, Metro TV 5% and Light TV 4%.

In Accra, for week two, UTV topped again with 25% followed by TV3 with 17%, GTV with 8%, Metro TV with 7%, Crystal Xtra with 6%, GhOne with 4%, Kantanka TV with 3% and ETV with 3%.

In Kumasi, week-three's results were: UTV 28%, TV3 20%, Crystal Xtra 11%, GTV 9%, with GhOne, Adom TV and Metro TV having 6% each.

In Accra, results for week three were as follows: UTV 23%, TV3 18%, GTV 9%, Metro TV 7%, Net 2 6%, with GhOne and Crystal Xtra having 5% each.

Week four registered the following results in Kumasi: UTV 29%, TV3 22%, Crystal Xtra 9%, GTV 8%, GhOne TV 6%, Metro TV 6% and Adom TV 5%.

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In the final week of March, the survey produced these results in Accra: UTV 24%, TV3 15%, GTV 8%, Metro TV 7%, GhOne 5%, ETV 5% and Kantanka TV 4%.

The same trend followed in the results of Takoradi and Cape Coast, with UTV leading and TV3 placing second.

The results, interestingly, showed that TV3, in terms of audience reach, beat UTV in Kumasi but the two stations obtained the same percentage in Accra.

The results, over the months, indicate that UTV, a free to air private television station from the stables of the Despite Group of Companies, has remained consistent as the most watched television station and has the largest share of television audience.

This is not that much of a surprise because it is largely a local content television station and its medium of communication is about 60 percent Twi, followed by English and a little bit of Ga and Ewe.

It is also heavily reliant on current movies, telenovelas, music videos and has a way of getting its presenters to explain current affairs in very basic terms and language that make meaning to the average Ghanaian.