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SINGAPORE, 4 NOVEMBER 2011: Consumption of media content across multiple screens, including computers, smartphones and tablets, is becoming more prevalent in Singapore, with more than one third of consumers (36.1%) having watched videos, movies or television programs online in the past week (up 6.3%) and 16.6 percent read newspapers online, according to a report by global information and measurement company, Nielsen.
Findings from Nielsen’s Media Index Report, which surveyed 4,696 of the Singapore population aged 15 and above between July 2010 to June 2011 on their media consumption, revealed that digital media, including internet content and digital newspapers, saw some gains in the past year, whilst cinema, radio and out-of-home remained stable, Television, print newspapers and magazines experienced slight declines.
Internet
Although internet penetration is gradually approaching saturation in Singapore, internet audiences grew by 2.2%, with more than two thirds (68.2%) having used the internet in the past week.
Social media, in particular, is impacting on internet usage. Almost two in five (38.4%) accessed social networking sites in the past week. Although social media has previously been considered a realm for primarily younger generations, increases in social media participation have been experienced across a range of age groups including baby boomers, and 17.7 percent of baby boomers are now engaging in social networking (up 8.9%) and 17 percent watched movies, television or videos online (up 5%). See Chart 1.
“Consumers in Singapore are demonstrating a high propensity to purchase connected mobile devices, especially smartphones and tablets, which translates to attention online,” notes Rebecca Tan, Managing Director of Nielsen’s Media Client Service team in Singapore. “Hence digital media, and particularly social media, present enormous opportunities for all stakeholders, from publishers to advertisers to agencies, and the key to tapping into these opportunities is to understand the key drivers behind consumers’ digital media habits and attitudes.”
Online daily newspapers
The up-take of digital media in Singapore saw solid gains in the digital editions of local newspapers. On a Past Week level, 12.4 percent of Singapore’s adult population now read at least one of the eight local daily newspapers’ digital editions (up 2.2%). In particular, the digital editions of both the Straits Times and Today also saw increases in Past Week readership, up 1.6 percent to 7.9 percent and up 1.0 percent to 2.3 percent respectively. Online readership of Lianhe Zaobao and Business Times remained stable for the period at 2.2 percent and 1.5 percent respectively.
“Internet capable mobile devices offer the convenience of media ‘anywhere, anytime’ via the web and increasingly via apps,” notes Tan. “The appeal of accessing media on the go is seeing a growing number of consumers in Singapore accessing media, such as newspapers, via online channels.”
Daily newspapers (hard copy)
Printed newspapers remain the staple read for the majority of the adult population in Singapore, with seven in 10 (70.7%) having read a Singaporean daily newspaper yesterday, down 1.8%. More than four in ten (44.8%) read English dailies.
The Straits Times maintains its hold as the most-read English title, with readership at 34.2 percent, followed by Today with 15.2 percent and The New Paper with 11.4 percent.
Amongst PMEBs (professionals, managers, executives and businessmen), Today remained the most read free paper, with more than four in 10 (43.2%) Today readers comprising PMEBs. Student readers (18.1%) continued to show preference for The New Paper with the title being the second most read amongst this group after The Straits Times. The financial newspaper, the Business Times, continued to enjoy stable readership, reaching 2.7 percent of the total adult population, with close to four in five of its readers (78.1%) being PMEBs .
More than a quarter of adults (28.7%) continued to read at least one of the three Chinese dailies. Although Lianhe Zaobao saw a dip in their readership (-1.8%) to 12.8 percent, it remained the preferred Chinese read for PMEB readers. Shin Min registered a 12.6 percent readership while Lianhe Wanbao reached 11.5 percent of the population.
Bilingual My Paper registered 7.3 percent albeit experiencing a minor dip of 1.6 percent. Other vernacular titles Berita Harian and Tamil Murasu maintained their readership at 5.8 percent and 1.4 percent respectively.
Magazines (entertainment weeklies and women’s monthlies)
I-weekly remains the most read weekly entertainment magazine with a reach of 4.7 percent amongst the adult population, followed closely by UW (4.2%) and 8 Days (3.4%). Her World ranked as the most popular monthly women’s magazine with 5.2 percent reach, followed by Female (3.1%), Singapore Women’s Weekly (2.9%), Cleo (2.3%) and Simply Her (1.8%).
Terrestrial TV
Although down slightly, terrestrial TV continues to enjoy strong reach, and 75.2 percent of adults in Singapore watched terrestrial TV yesterday (down 2.4%). Channel 8 continues to be the most watched terrestrial TV channel, watched by close to half the population (48.5%), followed by Channel U, down 3.5 percent to 27 percent, and Channel 5 (25.3%).
News channel Channel News Asia, with total penetration of 20.2 percent, continued to pull a strong PMEB viewing audience, with PMEBs making up close to half of its total audience (44.5%), whilst niche special interest and vernacular channels Suria, Okto and Vasantham maintained 7.4 percent, 5.3 percent and 4.9 percent reach respectively.
Online delivery of television content was well-received, with XinMSN accessed by 10.4 percent of adults in the past week, and ChannelNewsAsia.com accessed by 8.9 percent (up 1.2%).
Cable TV
Approximately half of the Singapore adult population (45.1%) continued to view cable TV in the past week, albeit with a slight decline of 3.4 percent. Half of cable TV’s viewership (50.2%) consisted of consumers from above-average income homes with an average monthly income of S$6,000 and above, and around one third of cable TV viewers (34.3%) are PMEBs.
“In recent years there has been a growing number of platforms and an increasing amount of content vying for consumers’ attention,” says Tan. “Moving ahead, with the Next-Generation Broadband network promising faster local broadband speeds, we can expect more local content offerings leveraging on this infrastructure.”
Cinema
Around one in 10 adults visited the cinema in the past week, with PMEBs and those aged 15 to 29 making up the core of cinema audiences (34.5% and 64.6% respectively).
Public transport / outdoor
Public transport ridership remains stable, with close to two thirds of adults in Singapore (63.9%) having travelled by public / feeder bus in the past week, more than half (54%) travelled by MRT and just under one in five (23.4%) travelled by taxi.
Radio
Radio listenership has remained steady with an overwhelming majority of adults (93%) tuning in to listen to any radio station in the past week, according to findings from Nielsen’s Radio Diary Survey 2011 Wave 1, which was conducted from March to May 2011 and surveyed a total of 2,022 respondents representative of the Singapore population aged 15+.
Class 95FM retained its top spot among English stations with 20 percent listenership, followed by Gold 90.5FM (13%) and 987FM (12%). 91.3 FM (7%) and Power98 FM (7%) rounded off the top five English stations.
Y.E.S 93.3FM (25%) remained the top Chinese station. Love 97.2FM (21%) and Capital 95.8FM (21%) vied fiercely for the second spot, whilst 883Jia FM (7%) and Radio 100.3 (7%) competed for fourth position.
Among other language stations, Warna 94.2FM (8%) continues to lead, followed by Oli 96.8FM (7%), Ria 89.7FM (6%) and Expat Radio 96.3XFM (3%).
Chart 1: Increase in participation in social networking (by generation)
About Nielsen
Nielsen Holdings N.V. (NYSE: NLSN) is a global information and measurement company with leading market positions in marketing and consumer information, television and other media measurement, online intelligence, mobile measurement, trade shows and related properties. Nielsen has a presence in approximately 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA and Diemen, the Netherlands. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.
Source: Nielsen Radio Diary Survey, March to May 2011
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