More people have reported that they watch television on a paid subscription service as IPTV services have seen a slight decline in popularity, according to a survey by the Broadcasting Authority. 

This year’s audience survey found that 92.5% of television viewers used a paid subscription service, up from 86.1% in 2021, while respondents who said that they used IPTV went from 12.5% last year to 9% in 2022. Use of the Android Box remained at a similar level at 7.7%, down from 8% in 2021. 

IPTV faced challenges from law enforcement this year after a court ordered internet service providers to block access to hundreds of IP addresses in Malta which were found to have been broadcasting content illegally. 

A judge also blocked the streaming of Seria A and La Liga football matches from being streamed on IPTV in June. 

Similarly to last year, the highest proportion of those surveyed responded that they did not have a favourite local TV show, however, this decreased from 23.4% in 2021 to 13.9% in 2022. 

Source: Broadcasting Authority

The 8’oclock news bulletin on TVM retained its position as audiences’ favourite local television program at 13.5%, followed by adventure reality show Liquorish (11%), which is broadcast on ONE. 

The 8’oclock news bulletin was largely followed on TVM’s primary channel and not on the dedicated news channel TVMnews+. The program attracted the most significant number of viewers on Thursdays and Sundays, on days when the show preceded EUFA Nations League football matches. 

Maltese audiences’ top four most followed remained unchanged in ranking, however, TVM gained just 4 percentage points, taking 47.9% of the share, while the number of people who said they mostly watched a foreign television station decreased from 43.6% to 34.4% in 2022. 

ONE made a gain of 3.2 percentage points, up to 25.6%, while NET hovered around the same number at 12.4%

The large majority of respondents (90%) reported that they watched television, with 54% saying they watched both local and foreign and 26% who watch only local tv shows. Just under two-thirds (61%) said they listened to the radio, while 17% said they watched Maltese content online, although this was largely observed in the 12 to 30-year-old bracket. 

Television still the primary source for news 

When it comes to the news,television was the primary source for news (44.5%) followed by social media, which increased in popularity by 6 percentage points, at 27.5% while online news portals saw a slight dip, losing just under 3 percentage points to take up 17.5% of people’s favourite local news source. 

Of those who cited television as their primary news source, 55% of respondents cited TVM as their preferred local station to watch the news, which jumped 16.4 percentage points from the year previous. The second most popular is Labour Party station ONE at 24.9%, which enjoys almost double the number of viewers as a primary news source than its rival, Nationalist Party channel NET TV, which stood at 11.4%. 

When it comes to online news portals, more than half (51.8%) of respondents said that Times of Malta was their preferred platform for local news, followed by tvm.com.mt at 9.6%

Source: Broadcasting Authority

Online viewership sees slight increase 

Audiences who watch Maltese content online saw an increase of 2 percentage points to 17% from the year prior, however, the overwhelming majority (83%) do not watch any Maltese programmes produced for online portals. 

Those who do consume Maltese content online cite social media platforms Facebook (87.6%) and YouTube (33.5%) as the platform where they watch said content, followed by Lovin Malta at 19.9%. 

While 39.8% of those surveyed said they did not have a favourite online show in Maltese, some 18.7% said Jon Mallia’s podcast was their most preferred content, followed by content hosted by Lovin Malta at 18.6%. 

Among radio listeners, Bay remained listeners' preferred station at 20.5%, followed by Calypso Radio at 13.1% and Vibe FM and ONE Radio coming in third and fourth at 12.6% and 12.4% respectively. 

Calypso overtook ONE Radio in second place, after seeing a slight gain in preferred listeners while ONE Radio went down 3.2 percentage points in the span of a year, seemingly losing ground to Vibe FM, which grew in popularity with listeners by 3.4 percentage points. 

Listeners’ favourite radio programmes remained unchanged, as respondents again rated Bay Breakfast with Daniel & Ylenia (17.1%), The Morning Vibe with Abel, JD & Martina (8%) and Bongu Calypso ma’ Twanny Scerri (7.7%) as their top three shows. 

Most radio listeners (91.7%) use a traditional radio set to listen to the radio while 5% said that they used DAB+.