Guardian Media Ltd achieved significant gains across all its media arms—CNC3, TBC Radio Network and the T&T Guardian—according to the latest Market Facts & Opinions (MFO) Media Trak survey. GML managing director Lisa Agard noted that in television CNC3 continued to dominate with six of the top ten programmes overall.
In addition, the T&T Guardian newspaper increased its overall share of readership by 13 per cent on weekdays. Of the two other dailies, one grew by two per cent and the other declined by eight per cent. There has been growth in print circulation over the last year (the survey only tracked print newspaper readership), while the T&T Guardian is embracing a digital future, with several online editions. Across all media, online digital products clearly posed a challenge for measurement.
The print edition of the paper nevertheless made strides in key demographic sectors when compared with the last Media Trak. In the 15-19 age bracket, the paper attracted 46 per cent more readers, whilst of the other two newspapers, one declined by 22 per cent, and the other grew by six per cent. Within the 25-34 age group the T&T Guardian also grew by 21 per cent, with one competitor showing a decline of seven per cent. The other remained flat.
Within the 35-44 age group the T&T Guardian also increased by 18 per cent. Within the East Indian market the T&T Guardian demonstrated 21 per cent growth. Viewed by socio-economic strata, the paper’s high-income readers increased by 22 per cent, low-income readers by 36 per cent and middle-income readers by 12 per cent. The survey showed that the paper’s sister station, CNC3, has a viewing audience of whom 40 per cent are aged 20–44, and 62 per cent of CNC3’s viewers are female.
From the perspective of ethnicity, 26 per cent are of African descent, 45 per cent East Indians and 29 per cent mixed/other. This means that 32 per cent more East Indians view CNC3 when compared with its closest competitor. In radio, it was noticeable that 15-34-year-olds were accessing radio digitally through their mobile devices as well as their PCs.
Within this study, 32 per cent of all listeners made up the Adult Contemporary segment, among whom 95.1fm, the Right Mix, was the clear leader in morning drive time, claiming a seven per cent rating. The TBC Radio network claimed a 14 per cent rating in evening drive time in three major segments, including Slam 100.5fm, Vibe CT 105.1fm and Aakash Vani 106.5fm.
Another key observation was that among high-income listeners, three GML stations had a 25 per cent share. These were 95.1fm (17 per cent), Vibe (five per cent) and Slam (three per cent). Noble Phillip, managing director of MFO, in presenting the survey results on Tuesday, urged media practitioners and advertisers to use the data wisely.
The survey has a margin of error of 3.5 per cent, so in a scenario such as that of the TV news, where there are ratings of 22 per cent vs 19 per cent for two programmes, neither can claim definitively to be in the lead.