The subject and purpose of this research was to establish the position of Radio-Television Montenegro (RTCG) in the market and among other media, to establish the position and ratings of all relevant broadcasters in Montenegro, as well as the scope and structure of the audience, to establish quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the audience, and to collect precise data on how much people watched and listened to programs and channels in Montenegro in 2001.

Radio-Television Montenegro strives to provide timely, objective, complete and good quality information to the Montenegrin public on events in Montenegro and outside it and to produce good quality and balanced news, political, educational, cultural, art, sports, commercial and entertainment programming.

RTCG’s competition is increasing and does not include only eight private TV stations which produce and broadcast their own programming in Montenegro. It also includes satellite programs and a large number of local (14 municipal) and private radio stations (22). In addition to direct competition, RTCG also has increasing and indirect competition in certain types of programs (movies – VCR and DVD), Internet, cable television stations in Podgorica and Budva, as well as in the traditionally present Serbian, Croatian, Italian and Albanian electronic media broadcasting in Montenegro’s airspace.

Hence, RTCG’s inviolability and its position today compared to the time when it was first established have radically changed.

Research results were obtained by surveying a population sample assumed to be the most representative of the residents in the area for which it is conducted. The sample encompasses 700 residents of Podgorica, Niksic, Berani, Bijelo Polje, Pljevlja, Bar, Herceg Novi and Cetinje. Due to methodological reasons, the research was carried out on a population sample above the age of 10. According to estimates[1], the population of Montenegro in 2001 was 654,000. Assuming that the population above the age of 10 did not change significantly in comparison to 1991 (83.23%), we estimate that 544,324 residents aged 10 and older live in Montenegro today.

Research results showed that more than 99% households in the research areas are in possession of a TV set. The potential audience was established on the basis of 538,881 viewers above the age of 10. The available market, that is to say the size of the population who are able to follow the signal of RTCG First Program and Third Program, in the absolute expression amounts to 525,140 people, which is 97.45% of people in possession of a TV set.

Analysis of TV Montenegro’s position in relation to its competition

Research results showed that the most watched program in Montenegro is TV CG First Program (59.1%). TV CG Third Program is in second place with 52.4%, followed by Elmag TV (32.3%), NTV Montena (25.4%), Blue Moon (22.4%), and TV CG Parliamentary Program (22.1%).

According to results shown in Table 1, which compares the ratings of TV stations in Montenegro in January and November 2001, it is noticeable that TV CG Third Program ratings fell by 12 percent, whilst TV CG First Program ratings fell by 8.3 percent. The ratings of NTV Montena and TV Sky Sat also fell, whilst Blue Moon ratings rose by 8.7 percent. Although TV CG First Program and Third Program are still the most watched programs, the cause of the fall in their ratings is an increase in the number of channels – in the meantime Parliamentary Channel started working in April 2001.

Table 1

2001

January

November

TV STATION

 %

Average number of viewers

%

Average number of regular viewers

1. TVCG First Program

67.4

366,874

59.1

321,695

2. TVCG Third Program

64.5

351,089

52.4

285,226

3. Parliamentary Channel TV CG

did not exist

22.1

120,296

4. Blue Moon

13.7

74,572

22.4

121,929

5. TV Elmag

32.8

178,538

32.3

175,817

6. NTV Montena

28.3

154,044

25.4

138,258

7. Sky sat

12.5

68,041

9.0

48,989

8. RAI uno

10.7

58,243

8.7

47,356

9. Satellite TV stations

11.7

63,686

10.3

56,065

10. Other

17.2

93,624

17.6

95,801

The aim of the research was to establish average daily ratings of individual TV programs and the time that viewers spend watching TV CG programs in relation to other TV stations’ programs. Respondents showed their attitude towards programs produced by two or more TV stations by answering the following question: “What TV station do you watch most often?” They selected one TV channel they watch most often and hence established the position of each TV channel in relation to other channels.

Table 2

2001

No.

TV STATION

January 

%

November  %

1

TVCG First Program

29.1

28.7

2

TVCG Third Program

27.7

22.3

3

TV Elmag

15.7

16.7

4

NTV Montena

10.4

9.6

5

Blue Moon

4.5

5.8

6

Satellite TV stations

4.2

3.6

7

Sky sat

2

1.4

According to results shown in Table 2, the difference in ratings decreased between TV Montenegro’s two key channels and their competition – TV Elmag (16.7% of viewers watch this TV station most often) and NTV Montena (9.6%). TV CG First Channel and Third Channel were the most watched in 2001, but less convincingly than three years ago, when Third Channel was in first place with 41.4% viewers who watched this TV channel most often. These changes may be viewed as a consequence of the effect of two factors. One is bigger coverage of Montenegro’s territory by competing TV stations. The second factor is a change in consumers’ affection caused, on one hand, by changes in the characteristics of individual programs and, on the other, by the degree to which certain TV stations have harmonized their programs with consumers’ requests and wishes.

viewer orientation towards different program contents

Based on analysis of respondents’ answers in establishing the ratings of the most watched program contents on the most watched TV stations or channels, TV CG First Channel is generally the most watched. The majority of viewers/respondents only watch its sports program – as many as 52%. Other program contents on this channel which viewers follow are political programs (42%), news programs (41%), series (33.0%), movies (28.6%) and call-in programs (14.7%).

            According to sports program ratings, TV Montenegro Third Program has the highest ratings (27.4%). As for entertainment programs, they are followed most often on this program and on Elmag TV (24.4% of viewers follow them most often on each of these channels), whilst political programs are followed most often on TV CG Parliamentary Channel.

As for news program ratings, TV Montenegro First Channel has the biggest advantage (Table 3):

Table 3

2001

No.

On what TV channel do you follow news programs most often?

Januar

%

Novembar

%

1

TVCG First Program

47.0

41.0

2

TVCG Third Program

14.3

12.3

3

Parliamentary Channel TV CG

did not exist

2.4

4

Blue Moon

0.7

0.4

5

TV Elmag

6.8

6.7

6

NTV Montena

8.5

7.1

7

Sky sat

0.7

0.4

8

RAI uno

0.6

0.0

9

Satellite TV stations

4.0

3.6

10

Other

17.0

26.0

According to results shown in Table 3, news programs on TV CG First Program are the most watched – 47% in January 2001 and 41% in November 2001. All other TV stations (including TV CG Third Program) are far behind TV CG First Program. In other words, news programs on TV Montenegro First Program have more viewers than all other TV stations put together. There is no doubt that this aspect of viewer orientation brings much competitive advantage to TV CG.

Generally speaking, the biggest change in November 2001 compared to January the same year occurred among viewers who did not watch news programs on any TV station (by 9%). Namely, an increase was noted among viewers who gave no answer to the asked question, by which they probably expressed their position that they do not watch news programs on any channels. As a fall is noticeable in the ratings of news programs on all channels, a possible cause of this change in viewer orientation may be that there are just too many different news programs.

In view of the already recognized significance of TV CG news program, particular attention in the research was given precisely to this program segment. Results are shown in tables 4 and 5:

         Table 4

Did you watch yesterday any of the following news shows?

No.

NEWS SHOW

Yeserday

Yes

No

Without an answer

1

Dnevnik TV CG at 7:30 pm

46.1

34.0

19.9

2

Fleš of TV CG Third Program

40.5

35.3

24.2

3

Vijesti TV Elmag  u 7:00 pm

15.2

47.4

37.4

4

Vijesti NTV Montena at 7:00 pm

11.6

48.7

39.7

5

III Dnevnik TV CG at 11:00 pm

14.6

54.7

30.7

6

Fleš Plus of TV CG Third Program

24.7

45.6

29.7

Table 5

How often do you watch news shows?

No.

NEWS SHOW

Every day

Sometimes

Seldom

Without an answer

1

Dnevnik TV CG at 7:30 pm

28.2

37.8

13.6

20.3

2

Fleš of TV CG Third Program

20.9

43.3

13.2

22.6

3

Vijesti TV Elmag  u 7:00 pm

8.6

28.8

28.1

34.5

4

Vijesti NTV Montena at 7:00 pm

7.2

28.2

28.8

35.8

5

III Dnevnik TV CG at 11:00 pm

5.5

34.7

33.4

26.4

6

Fleš Plus of TV CG Third Program

10.9

43.9

20.8

24.4

As a rule, the position of the Dnevnik (Journal) news program is better in places where TV CG has no competition. According to the average number of viewers in Podgorica, the leading position of the Dnevnik at 19.30 is taken away by TV CG Third Channel’s Flash, whose broadcasts are watched during the day (it is broadcast several times during the day) by a larger number of viewers. This Dnevnik has more and more competition in Podgorica in NTV Montena and Elmag TV, whilst it has considerable competition in Bar in Elmag TV, which is equal to Flash in this municipality by the number of average viewers.

It must be emphasized that respondents attributed objectivity, informative quality, reliability, openness and rich content to news programs broadcast by TV CG’s competitors. TV Elmag and NTV Montena have higher average marks in these criteria than TV CG news programs.

The next table estimates the average number of viewers of individual news programs based on the total size of the population above the age of 10 (544,324 residents).

Table 6

No.

NEWS SHOW

Average number

Number of regular

1

Dnevnik TV CG at 7:30 pm

250,933

153,499

2

Fleš of TV CG Third Program

220,451

113,764

3

Vijesti TV Elmag  u 7:00 pm

82,737

46,812

4

Vijesti NTV Montena at 7:00 pm

63,142

39,191

5

III Dnevnik TV CG at 11:00 pm

79,471

29,938

6

Fleš Plus of TV CG Third Program

134,448

59,331

As Table 6 shows, the highest ratings are reported for TV Montenegro’s Dnevnik at 19.30 (it has an average of 46% viewers and is regularly watched by 28.2% of the audience) and TV Montenegro Third Program’s Flash (watched by an average of 40.5% of the audience and regularly watched by 20.9%). TV Montenegro’s Dnevnik at 19.30 is watched every day by an average of 250,993 citizens of Montenegro above the age of 10 (in January 2001 this figure was 280,357). In the Dnevnik viewer structure, more than 50% people watch it every day/regularly. Namely, 153,499 citizens of Montenegro are regular consumers of information broadcast in TV CG’s Dnevnik at 19.30. The ratings of Third Program’s Flash fell considerably: in January 2001 it was TV CG’s most watched news program with an average number of 301,467 viewers. Slightly weaker positions are held by Flash Plus (24.7% in January and 10.9% in November) and TVCG’s III Dnevnik (14.6% in January and 5.5% in November).

Although the market share held by TV Montenegro’s competition is much smaller than that of TV CG’s primetime news programs, it is no longer negligible. Namely, TV Elmag’s news is watched more than TV CG’s III Dnevnik, and it has (as does NTV Montena’s News) more regular viewers than TV CG’s news program.

The following viewers are dominant in the average viewer structure of TV CG First Program’s Dnevnik at 19.30:

-          viewers above the age of 40. The rule is that the number of Dnevnik viewers, both average and everyday, increases with their age,

-          viewers with higher education and, on the other hand, viewers with elementary school education. In the structure of everyday viewers, the most significant place is held by viewers with a university degree, pensioners, businessmen, housewives and clerks.

According to answers given by respondents/viewers, it is clear what contents are missing in the news programs of all TV stations in Montenegro:

1.      Almost 73% of average viewers maintain that not enough attention/airtime is given to the living standard of the population,

2.      The majority of viewers maintain that more time should be given to the issues of ecology and protection of the environment,

3.      Approximately 60% of average viewers assess that the issues of crime and corruption are given insufficient airtime in TV CG’s Dnevnik at 19.30,

4.      Almost 55% of viewers maintain that more time should be given to the education reform.

Comparing research results for TV CG at the beginning and end of 2001, one may conclude that viewers are becoming more “impatient” to see a show program, as well as a night and educational program and a Sunday afternoon program, produced by this television station (Table 7).

Table 7

What program contents do you miss on TVCG?

No.

PROGRAM

January 2001

%

November 2001

%

1

Children’s Program

14.6

24.5

2

Educational Program

22.9

35.8

3

Sunday Afternoon Program

24.9

29.2

4

Night Program

29.4

35.1

5

Entertainment

37.6

41.3

6

TV Drama (domestic production)

24.1

27.9

7

TV Serial (domestic production)

32.9

30.1

8

Business (privatizationprivatizacija)

6.5

3.6

9

All

4.3

0.6

Separate channel for politics – TV CG parliamentary channel

The most watched program with political content is the Parliamentary Channel program (we assume the majority of viewers follow live transmissions of Montenegrin Assembly sessions on this program), whilst the second position is held by TV Montenegro First Program. Of all the program categories, the category that most viewers do not watch are political programs (42.4%). This rule applied in previous researches as well.

Table 8

On what TV channel do you follow political programs most often?

No.

TV KANAL

January

%

November

%

1

TVCG First Program

40.7

15.4

2

TVCG Third Program

3.9

4.0

3

Parliamentary Channel TV CG

did not exist

24.0

4

Blue Moon

0.4

0.7

5

TV Elmag

5.8

4.6

6

NTV Montena

7.9

6.6

7

Sky sat

0.0

0.0

8

Satellite program

0.1

0.0

9

Other

1.9

2.3

10

Does not have an answer

39.0

42.4

In the structure of viewers who follow political programs on TV CG Parliamentary Channel most often, the following categories are represented the most: males, people over the age of 50, pensioners and clerks. The largest number of viewers (26.6%) regularly follow assembly sessions. Much less followed are the program Iz ostrog ugla (From a Sharp Angle) (11%) and political party press releases and conferences (12.3%), with every other viewer never watching them. This may serve as a signal to political parties that they need to make serious changes in using this method of communication with potential voters. All of this, however, is only one side of the coin. The other side is seen by viewers in the following way. Results of this continuous research of broadcasters, which lasted for almost one year, especially television programs and channels in Montenegro related to that part of the program which is reserved for politics, show that the largest number of viewers from the potential Montenegrin audience (538,881 viewers above the age of 10) do not follow political programs (42%). It is interesting that in January 2001, 35% of viewers maintained that a special program or channel should be created for politics, although as much as 40.7% of the total surveyed audience followed political programs only on TVCG First Program. It is possible that viewers were too tired of politics and wanted to move political contents to a separate TV channel. We will know a little more about this after at least one year of experience with RTCG TV Parliament, which only started broadcasting in April 2001. In this context the huge interest in sports (36%) can also partly be interpreted by the above result, but it seems to be much more in correlation with the cult of a gambling spirit and chance games, which is expressed through a demand for entertainment and show program by 40% of the surveyed residents.

In an extremely politicized society such as the Montenegrin, the fact is that news and political programs are dominant on state, i.e. national media. Time will show if, apart from direct transmissions of Assembly sessions, it had been necessary to introduce a separate channel on RTCG for political contents, that is to say if this was really a step towards democratization or if it terrorizes viewers at the state’s expense, which is again paid for by residents, i.e. those who pay TV license fee and who are not asked about anything.

Position of Montenegrin radio stations and Radio Montenegro

Although the signal of Radio Montenegro First Program nominally covers the entire territory of Montenegro, during a desk research carried out by the RTCG Development and Research Department, the radio management pointed out the fact that the quality of the radio signal is a lot poorer than the quality of competing radio stations’ signal. We saw this for ourselves during this research project in a question on the quality of Radio Montenegro’s signal. It is astounding that only 47.8% of the respondents answered that they have a good signal, 12.2% said the signal is poor, 7.3% of respondents said the signal overlaps with another station’s signal, whilst 1.7% of the audience have absolutely no Radio Montenegro signal.

Table 9

When did you last time listen to the radio longer than 30 minutes?

Yesterday

Last week

Last month

I heard of that station, but have not listened to it

I have not heard of that radio station

Radio CG  First Program

20.5

14.8

13.7

23.8

2.5

Radio 98

9.5

6.5

7.7

23.1

13.2

Elmag radio

30.4

13.7

10.0

12.5

2.7

Radio Antena M

7.4

9.0

9.8

23.4

7.8

Montena radio

8.7

6.5

10.2

27.1

5.4

Radio Gorica

5.7

7.7

6.9

25.7

11.2

Radio "D"

18.2

5.4

4.5

18.7

11.2

Free Montenegro

5.5

5.7

6.5

26.1

13.0

Local radio-station

37.7

6.4

5.2

12.4

7.7

Based on respondents’ answers shown in Table 9, the average daily ratings of individual radio stations can be established. It is methodologically correct to assume, in view of the representative sample (from the population of 525,140 citizens above the age of 10), that the average number of listeners of a certain radio station is actually the number of listeners who said they listened to the station the previous day for more than 30 minutes. Although this piece of information means a lot, it must be noted that it tells more in the sense of quantity than quality of a certain radio station. Namely, this fact can only be interpreted as a percentage of the audience which, for whatever reason, chose to listen to a certain radio station for more than 30 minutes. Data from the table shows that Radio Elmag is the station that most people listen to – an average of 30.4% of the total audience in Montenegro listen to it every day. The second place is held by Radio Montenegro First Program, whose ratings are 20.5% or 111,000 listeners (approximately every fifth listener follows this radio station’s program). Although its signal covers a considerably smaller part of Montenegro, and although it is a much younger station that its main competitors, Radio D firmly holds third place with 18.2% of listeners.

Different levels of quality

Proceeding from the assumption that different stations are characterized by different degrees of quality and presence of different programming contents, listeners’ orientation towards different radio stations depending on programming content was also analyzed. Answers to the question: “You listen to news programs most often on the following radio station?” showed that listeners’ orientation changes and that they listen to news programs at the level of Montenegro most often on Radio Montenegro. Radio Montenegro has the highest ratings with 21% of listeners and a mild advantage over Elmag (19%). It is interesting that local radio stations participate in news program ratings with almost 19%. They have achieved this by providing an abundance of local information and information of importance to everyday life in their programs, but primarily by re-broadcasting Radio Montenegro primetime news programs. News and political call-in programs also have the highest ratings on Radio Montenegro.

 Table 10

No.

RADIO STATION

%

1.       

26.6

2.       

Antena M

6.5

3.       

Montena Radio

6.2

4.       

Free Montenegro

4.1

5.       

Other

21.4

6.       

Does not have an answer

35.2

Data shown in Table 10 confirms RCG’s good position as a source of information in Montenegro. The structure of listeners who listen to news and political call-in programs on Radio Montenegro consists of four categories of listeners:

1.      listeners above the age of 60,

2.      listeners from Bijelo Polje, Berani, Bar and Cetinje,

3.      listeners who most often listen to Radio Montenegro,

4.      listeners who choose their radio station for its news or call-in program or out of habit.

Regular listeners show most loyalty to the program Novosti dana (News of the Day). Every third regular listener of Radio Montenegro regularly follows this primetime program at 15.30. The programs Nocni program (Night Program) and Jutarnji dnevnik (Morning Journal) are also followed regularly. In the structure of Radio Montenegro’s everyday listeners:

1.      men and women have equal participation,

2.      older listeners, above the age of 60 (27%), and between 10 and 15 years of age (24%) participate more,

3.      there is higher participation of listeners with a lower level of education (practically every fourth listener without an elementary school degree or with only an elementary school degree listens to this radio program), and listeners with a university degree (21%),

4.      there is higher participation of pensioners (26%), elementary and high school students (20%) and university students (19%),

5.      listeners from Cetinje, Berani and Niksic also participate in higher numbers, as well as listeners who follow the radio program for more than four hours a day.

Regular listeners’ opinions can serve as a guideline for certain program modifications to be made to suit their requests and tastes. Namely, 36.2% of regular listeners maintain that Radio Montenegro program lacks certain music contents which, combined with the reasons why listeners choose to listen to a certain radio station, indicates that music program is a dominant reason for listeners’ orientation. In addition to this, the majority of listeners think that the participation of news programs on Radio Montenegro is just right and that this radio station is successful in resisting trash and kitsch music.

NOTE: The research project and analysis of broadcasters in Montenegro in 2001 was carried out in collaboration with the Public Opinion Research Agency Damar and with professors of the Faculty of Economics in Podgorica, M.A. Milorad Jovovic (Department of Marketing) and Dr. Sasa Popovic, Director of the Center for Statistical Research and Predictions Modus.

Velizar Sredanovic, publicist, works as Assistant Director at JP RTCG for Research and Development. Translated by: K.H. Edited by: M. Dedovic. © Media Online 2002. All rights reserved.

[1] Statisticki kalendar 2000 (Statistical Calendar 2000), Federal Bureau of Statistics, Belgrade, 2000, p. 10.