Romania: Television, the Most Popular Broadcast Medium Report

Television remains the dominant media in Romania, according to a report commissioned by BBC World Service. The survey, carried out by local fieldwork agency TNS CSOP, questioned 1985 people and took place in October/November 2004.

Television
Television is the most popular broadcast medium in Romania: 96 per cent watch weekly. This is followed by radio (68 per cent) with internet a long way behind - just 9 per cent of Romanians go online weekly.

This pattern is unsurprising given the differences in penetration levels of the respective technologies: home ownership of satellite and cable TV is high, 71 per cent nationally rising to 92 per cent in the capital, while home PC ownership and access to the internet are especially low at 21 per cent and 8 cent respectively.
TV is the primary mode for consuming news but radio is also very frequently used for this purpose: 97 per cent watch TV for news while 80 per cent also listen to radio news. Just 4 per cent ever use the internet in this way.
Radio

Listening to stations which are mainly speech-based is a minority activity in Romania - just 12 per cent of weekly radio listeners tune into this type of station per week. Stations which offer a mixed format of music and speech are the most popular: 70 per cent of weekly radio listeners tune to this type of station.

Although the Romanian radio market is slowly advancing and consolidating with the entrance of powerful new players bolstered by foreign capital, the structure is still far from mature. There are over 200 radio stations serving a country of 22 million people. TV, press and even outdoor media exceed radio in terms of advertising spend (source: AC Nielsen Media International - Emerging Markets report). Furthermore, the Romanian licensing authority has been very generous in its recent awards of low power FM licences, however the majority of the latest tranche were specialist/niche stations.

Radio Romania Actualitati - the main state owned station and the only one with national coverage - leads the radio market. Its weekly reach is 33 per cent. This has stabilized after a fall in listenership between 2002 and 2003. Radio Europa FM and Radio Kiss, with weekly audiences of 22 per cent and 18 per cent respectively, are the next most popular private commercial stations. Although they are both expanding their networks, neither of these stations has full national coverage yet.

Romanians are highly attracted to radio news and current affairs. Interest in news content on the radio is as high as that for music - Two-thirds of Romanians describe themselves as "extremely or very interested" in radio news. The same was found for music on the radio.
Geographically, Romanians are most interested in domestic news but international news is also important to nearly half the population. 65 per cent are "extremely or very interested in" domestic news compared with 46 per cent for international news.

International radio
Although listening via shortwave continues to fall, it is still more common in Romania than nearly all other European markets which have much higher FM usage. International radio maintains a stable presence in Romania.

The withdrawal of VOA and less output from Radio Free Europe in Romanian have not had a significant effect on overall foreign radio listening levels: 10 per cent of Romanians said they listened to one or more international radio stations in the past week, consistent with 2003 levels.
Radio Free Europe is the most well-known foreign radio broadcaster in Romania, achieving 53 per cent awareness compared with 21 per cent for Deutsche Welle and 16 per cent for Radio France International. There is significant awareness of the BBC too.
[Source: BBC World Service research 10 August 2005]

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