The Croatian Radio-Television is now the third most-watched TV station among three national-level broadcasters.
Two commercial national-level TV stations, Nova TV and RTL Television, have more viewers than the public broadcaster, the Croatian Radio-Television (HTV), in all three target groups, according to a survey conducted by the Agency for Electronic Media in cooperation with AGB Nielsen on ratings of television programmes in April this year, reports Index.hr on May 16, 2017.
In the category of viewers over the age of four who live in a household with a TV receiver, Nova TV is the most watched TV channel with a 23.57 percent share, followed by RTL with 15.83 percent, while HTV channel one is viewed on average by 14.3 percent of viewers.
The share indicates the average rating of the individual channel among members of the particular target group who at a given time were watching a television programme.
In the category of viewers which is the most interesting for advertisers, those between 18 and 49 years of age, Nova TV has a share of 20.2 percent, RTL is second with 17.8 percent, while the first channel of HTV is third with just 8.76 percent. In the 18-54 age group, results are almost the same. Nova TV is the first with 21 percent, RTL second with 17.6 percent, while the HTV first channel is at 10.1 percent.
When looking at prime time, which is the period between 19:00 to 23:00, the difference between Nova TV and RTL on the one hand and the public broadcaster on the other is even larger, as seen in the table below (Doma TV is the second channel of Nova TV).
Among individual shows, the three most popular shows in April were broadcast by Nova TV (a Turkish soap opera, the main evening news, and the Your Face Sounds Familiar entertainment show). There are five HTV programmes which are placed in the top ten, from the sixth to the tenth position (an agricultural show, the Sunday political talk-show, the live coverage of a Champions League match, early afternoon news, and a show devoted to maritime affairs).
HTV has long been criticised for the poor quality of its programming, which include numerous gaffes and mistakes. Also, the constant decline in viewership could be a consequence of a blatant ideological shift which HTV has taken in the past year and a half.
In the same period last year, HTV was in second place in the category of viewers aged four and older. The first was Nova TV with 24.2 percent, the second was HTV first channel with 15.4 percent, and the RTL was third with 14.4 percent.
