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Increasing living standards sway media consumption
LSM 1 and 2 decreased, and LSM 6 and 7 increased.

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Banking on it
More South Africans own bank accounts.

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14% increase in total
cellphone usage
There has been a lot of buzz about the cellphone as advertising medium.

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A closer look at Media
Print, television, the world wide web, radio and outdoor.

Print picks up the pace

Today more than ever before, South Africans are focusing on education and this has been reflected in the newly emergent LSM 6 and 7 brackets.

Overall, functional literacy in South Africa has risen from 84% to 85.9% and the number of matriculations increased by 4% between AMPS 2006 RA to AMPS 2007 RA. The most notable increase in matriculations was found in the black population, showing a substantial increase in functional literacy levels from 80.5% to 82.8% and also an increase in matric qualifications from 74% (AMPS 2006 RA) to 75.6% (AMPS 2007 RA).

Given that literacy levels are up and media messages now accessible to a larger proportion of the population, how has this impacted the consumption of media?
 

‘Any' Newspaper reading has risen from 41.6% to 44.4% between AMPS 2006
RA to AMPS 2007 RA. Dailies have taken the lead with an 8% increase and weekly newspapers increasing by 7%.

‘Any' Magazine readership has shown an overall increase of 8.5%. The most notable increases in magazine readership from AMPS 2006 RA to AMPS 2007 RA were as follows:

Television

Reported television viewership in the last day went up substantially from 66.2% to 70.5% from AMPS 2006 RA to AMPS 2007 RA.

As indicated earlier, the improvement in living conditions has given more and more South Africans access to electricity. Jennifer Daniel, Research Director at e.tv, comments on the latest results saying that "we are very happy with the upward trend in TV viewership, which can be attributed, amongst other reasons, to the increase in the number of homes with electricity, which has resulted in more homes having television sets."

The free-to-air channels e.tv, SABC 1, SABC 2 and SABC 3 have all enjoyed an increase in viewership numbers. This increase can be directly attributed to the increased number of television sets now owned.

While M-Net viewership showed a decline, DSTV viewership increased substantially over the past 7 days. Jennifer adds that "the slight decline in the M-Net viewership could be attributed to the fact that their open window between 17:00 and 19:00 was closed towards the end of the fieldwork period."

World Wide Web

With the growing popularity of the Internet as a first stop information portal,
it is not surprising to see this gradual increase.

Internet usage has increased from AMPS 2006 RA to AMPS 2007 RA, with access to the Internet within the last 7 days increasing from 5.3% to 6%, and within the last 4 weeks rising from 6.4 to 7.1%.

In the more rural areas, where some may not have access to computers, access to the Internet has become possible. As most cellphones now provide users with Internet access, surfing the net has become possible for those who have never even seen or touched a computer.

Radio

Has the digital revolution introduced "share of ear" competition?

Trendy gadgets such as MP3 players, have changed the way that people listen to music. With new technology like the Apple iPod taking to the market-place, one questions whether radio has felt the impact. Johan van Rooyen, Market Intelligence Manager at SABC Commercial Radio, adds his view on the matter by saying that "MP3s have not had a negative impact on radio thus far. Research which we have conducted has shown that the use of MP3s is predominant in higher LSMs, which really make up a select portion of total available radio audiences. Even that small portion is not lost as we have found that they use their MP3s in different situations, which do not compete with radio for share of ear."

The result seems to be that radio is able to co-exist with technology as opposed to competing with it. Johan adds that "people use their iPods while exercising, for example. It's in similar lifestyle situations as a CD would be." He highlights the difference between the MP3 and radio by saying that "radio is an interactive medium, it adds the personality and entertainment that people connect with and this is one of the reasons why the medium is so successful."
 

The results of SAARF AMPS 2007 RA prove that radio is most alive and doing well as total listenership was shown to have increased overall. Commercial Radio listenership rose from 90.2% to 91% and Community Radio listenership remained stable.

"The industry is doing well and the entrance of the new community radio stations has presented some healthy competition in the market-place. The competition is good for radio as it keeps all players on their toes," Johan says. When asked about his views on the entrance of the various new community stations, Johan says that there will be more choice for listeners which will result in a more fragmented market looking forward.

Outdoor

Exposure to outdoor media in the last 7 days increased overall. These are the increases from AMPS 2006 RA to AMPS 2007 RA:
 

The increase in outdoor advertising could be due to recent sporting events which advertisers are cleverly playing to their advantage as we lead up to 2010 FIFA World Cup™.

An event of this magnitude brings with it opportunities to celebrate our culture and arouses a national sense of patriotism. These issues should be top of the mind to all marketing and communications people. The overall increase in media consumption echoes the voice of a more receptive, more inquiring nation.