The surveys were done between December 2018 and April 2019 by two consultancies, Dedicated Research, for BX1, and AQRate, for the 11 local televisions in Wallonia, with 5,000 respondents.
Based on their results, an estimated 585,000 Walloons and Brussels residents watch a local TV station for 35 minutes each day and more than half of them are under the age of 50 years.
The specific audiences of the various local TV stations are tightly bunched, the federation’s director general, Fabien Bourgies, told Belga news agency: the daily audience share for TV viewers aged 16 years and above is 15.4% on average, ranging between 13% and 17% according to the 11 Walloon TVs (the methodology used by BX1 does not allow for comparisons).
Local TV channels and Internet sites (43%), social networks (43%) and news sites (41%) are the three favourite ways in which people obtain information on developments in their areas, the two surveys show.
According to the federation, local TV stations have succeeded in their digital transition. More than 378,000 persons follow their pages on Facebook, 65,000 on Twitter and 22,000 on Instagram.
Oscar Schneider
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