What appears to be an al-Arabiya press release is touting the findings of a November Ipsos-Stat survey of television news audiences in Saudi Arabia:
Al Arabiya is the most watched news channel in Saudi Arabia according to latest results from Ipsos-Stat TV research for November 2005. The report revealed the Dubai-based broadcaster as the prime source of news and information with most Saudis tuning in to Al Arabiya than any other source. The report found Al Arabiya enjoying nearly 24% audience reach during primetime, with a 1.4% lead over its closest competitor, the Qatari-owned Al Jazeera.
The story includes a gushing quote from Jihad Ballout - and how strange it is to see him identified as al-Arabiya's spokesman, after all those years hearing him talk up al-Jazeera! I have confidence in the Ipsos-Stat surveys, and their results in Iraq and Saudi square with the findings of other independent surveys. Actually, the headline finding of this survey (if it wasn't an al-Arabiya press release, and a bit Alhurraed) could easily be that al-Jazeera appears to be running almost even with al-Arabiya on its own home turf - only trailing by 1.4%, which may be within the margin of error (which isn't provided).
As I mentioned in the NPR interview, in the Arab media environment market share is seen as extremely important even if there's little advertising revenue attached - market share is essentially an indicator of influence and power - and all the stations have an incentive to try and manipulate perceptions of that market share. That will continue until there's a generally accepted AC Nielsen equivalent (an independent, regularly produced and commonly accepted indicator of market share).
One other interesting bit from the story:
Moreover, a separate study confirms Al Arabiya is in prime position as the region’s news provider. Results from Internet-traffic reports by Amazon-owned Alexa show AlArabiya.net up 19% points, suggesting the news channel is a fierce competitor in cyber space as well.
Anyone know anything about these internet traffic reports? I would love to be able to access reliable information comparing, say, the al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya website traffic over a period of time. Anyone know if such data is out there?
UPDATE: so, I did that Alexa search - here's the result of the al-Jazeera/al-Arabiya comparison:
It doesn't really scream "closing the gap", and I'm not 100% sure what it actually measures, but it's sure interesting.
1. Go to http://www.alexa.com/
2. Click on the traffic rankings tab
3. Enjoy!
Posted by: Michael | December 18, 2005 at 04:05 PM
I emailed IPSOS-Stat in Saudi and asked them if they would be releasing the data or if they would at least release the margin of error. Funnily enough, they haven't responded.
They've produced figures on magazine distribution in Dubai that show their client slightly ahead of the nearest competitor. They wouldn't tell me how they got those either. Their nearest competitor (Time Out) is audited by a British firm that publishes its finding for all to see, in line with common practice in the UK.
I'm not saying they're lying, but there are plenty of ways to spin statistics in favour of a client and they're fast losing any credibility with me.
Posted by: waterboy | December 20, 2005 at 09:40 AM
Interesting - keep me posted. Is Alhurraing contagious?
Posted by: the aardvark | December 20, 2005 at 09:44 AM