Media fragmentation – what works for radio does not work for TV

Radio listenership has been flat over the last four years. Audiences are now spread over so many stations that only Citizen and Easy are attracting decent numbers.

So whereas consumers welcome and benefit from such competition, investors and advertisers must be in a quandary with regard to where to place their money. But given the number of licensed players, it is heartening to see that other radio stations are still hanging on, albeit with small proportions of viewers, making radio a many-horse-race for the time being.

Over in TV-land, the scene is quite different. While viewership has been growing especially since 2007, this growth does not appear to be favouring broadcasters apart from Citizen which is growing at a steady clip and NTV which is recovering well. KTN and KBC are in freefall. The other stations are just not on the radar.

That notwithstanding, more TV stations are coming on stream; what, really, is the thinking here when it is becoming evident that three nationwide TV broadcasters is just about enough?