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Thursday, February 10, 20051108029600
Free Egyptian Media
"48% of households in Cairo use the Internet and 46% have Satellite TV," MENAFN Press, 26 January 2005 (from Collounsbury).
More fallout from my Free Arab Media article -- Collounsbury linked to a "Arab Advisors Group report showing great news in Egypt
48% of households in Cairo use the Internet and 46% have Satellite TV
The Arab Advisors Group conducted a major comprehensive survey of the media and telecom usage habits of the population of Greater Cairo between November 2004 and Jan 2005. On the TV front, despite the relatively wide adoption of Sat TV, terrestrial TV is still alive and kicking with a full 91% of households in Cairo tuning in to Egypt's terrestrial TV channels. Of the Sat TV viewers, 68.3% tune in to news channels. Al Jazeera news channels is the most widely watched (88.4% of households with Sat TV watched it), followed by Al Arabiya (35.1%), Nile News (8.9%), CNN (6.6%), Al Hurra (4.6%), Al Ekhbaryia (3.9%), BBC (3.1%), ANN, Euronews and Manar (each with 0.4%). The survey also probed the channels the households watched in the categories of: Music Channels, Entertainment Channels, Sport Channels and Religion Channels. On the GSM front, the survey revealed that some 71% of households in Cairo have a GSM line.
...
The "Cairo Households Media Survey 2005" reveals that 46% of Cairo households have a Sat TV dish, and a full 91% still also watch terrestrial TV broadcasting. TV viewing peak time is 9 PM - mid night, with close to 80% of households watching TV during this time.
This is eye-opening. Almost half of Cairo residents are hooked into the outside world. While satellite TV shows unfortunate state interference with Al Jazeera, Al Hurrah, and the BBC in the top 10 (though Collounsbury bete noire Al Hurra is more popular than the BBC). More happily, even more Cairoans (Cairis?) have internet access. The Economist reported that Egypt is one of three Arab states with no internet controls, the others being Iraq and Libya. This means that nearly half of citizens of the greatest city in a great Arab state have free worldwide information.
Western blogs are becoming increasingly influential. Hopefully, Egyptian blogs will be one day too.
Let's keep the ball rolling. Don't let up pressure on Arab states to liberalize and don't let up pressure on the state behemoths -- the BBC or al Jazeera.
04:00 Posted by Dan tdaxp (Webmaster) in Africa, Connectivity, Media, Natural Liberty | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this