The latest State of Media Report has shed light on the most popular media houses in Kenya.
The report released by the Media Council of Kenya on February 13 showed that television and radio are still the leading platforms for Kenyans, with 33% of respondents relying on each for their information.
Social media followed close behind with 18%, while family/friends/colleagues and newspapers both had 6% of respondents relying on them.
In the list of most visited news websites, Pulselive.co.ke was named among the top 10. The increased usage of digital media was backed by the growing popularity of smartphones and tablets, especially among the youth.
The report also showed a trend towards legacy media platforms, with 80% of respondents relying on television for their information. This was a significant increase from 58% in 2021 and can be attributed to the election season and the accessibility of online platforms such as YouTube.
The majority of those who watched television did so between 8:00 pm and midnight (46%), with another 29% tuning in between 4:00 pm and 8:00 pm.
Set-top boxes were the most common way for respondents to access television (65%), followed by digital/online platforms (19%), satellite/cable (12%), and digital apps (4%).
Most popular TV stations in Kenya
In Q4 of 2022, the top 10 popular TV stations were Citizen TV (36%), KBC (12%), NTV (12%), KTN Home (11%), KTN News (7%), Inooro TV (6%), K24 (5%), Ramogi TV (3%), Kass TV (1%), and Kiss TV (1%).
There was an improvement in performance for KBC which grew from 3% to 12% between 2021 and 2022, as a result of increased subscriptions due to the 2022 World Cup, when the survey was conducted. KBC's strategy to show 28 World Cup games seems to have paid off.
However in January 2023, after the World Cup, the statistics changed to Citizen TV leading with (38% ), followed by NTV (13%), and KTN Home (12%), KBC (9%) Inooro TV (8%), K24 (5%), KTN News (4%), Ramogi TV (4%) and Kameme TV (1%).
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Most popular Radio Stations in Kenya
Radio also saw an increase in usage, with 78% of respondents relying on it for information.
This was a 4% point improvement from 74% in 2021 and can be attributed to the election season and the availability of phone radio apps.
Most of those who listened to the radio did so in the morning (35%) or in the evening (24%).
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Radio Citizen and Radio Jambo were the most listened-to radio stations in both 2021 and 2022, commanding listenership of 18% and 16% respectively. Radio Maisha followed with 12%, then Milele FM (8%), Inooro FM (4%), Kameme FM (4%), Radio Taifa (4%), Classic 105 (3%), Ramogi FM (3%) and Kiss FM (3%).
Kameme FM suffered the biggest loss from 7% in 2021 to 4% in 2022.
The report also showed that digital/social media platforms continued to play a significant role, with 83% of respondents using them. Facebook, WhatsApp, and YouTube were the three most used platforms.
Facebook saw a decline from 26% in 2021 to 23% in 2022.
On the other hand, newspapers continued to decline, with 70% of respondents not reading them.
Of those who did, the majority read the Daily Nation (53%), the Standard (22%), and Taifa Leo (15%).