International Broadcasters- Voice of America Television

• VOA TV programming has a weekly reach of 9.5 percent, according to the 2009 survey. This percentage would roughly translate into a weekly audience of 14 million adults. The 2007 survey indicated a weekly reach for VOA TV of 16.9 percent. As pointed out in the previous InterMedia report for Indonesia (released in July 2008), the 2007 survey included several new measures for VOA TV that might have led to an overestimation of the VOA audience in Indonesia that year. As a result, comparisons between the reach figures for VOA TV in 2007 and 2009 should only be made with caution. Most importantly, it is not safe to infer that there has been a drop in overall VOA TV reach this year.
• Despite the relatively strong presence of VOA TV programming on Indonesian television, the VOA TV brand is not yet widely recognized in the country. By April 2009, VOA TV was mentioned by 8 percent of respondents, whether spontaneously or prompted, compared to 11 percent in late 2007. In other words, awareness of VOA TV is lower than it was last year. In any case, the 2009 survey indicates that there is a significant drop in awareness of the main Western news stations in general.

• The percentage of people who mentioned CNN spontaneously dropped by almost half from 2007 to 2009. Awareness of CNN, whether spontaneous or prompted, declined from 20 percent in 2007 to 16 percent in 2009—separated from VOA TV by only 4 percentage points, compared to 9 percentage points the previous year. Awareness of BBC World is at 8 percent, compared to 12 percent in 2007. The only station growing in brand awareness is Al Jazeera, going from 7 percent in 2007 to 12 percent in 2009, a significant increase in a relatively short period of time. Besides these news stations, the most popular international channels overall are MTV and Discovery, recognized by 28 percent and 12 percent of the adult population, respectively.
• Al Jazeera, BBC World and CCN are available only by satellite and mostly broadcast in English. However, these stations tend to enjoy stronger brand recognition than VOA TV, particularly CNN and Al Jazeera. One of the main reasons is that, unlike VOA TV, these stations have their own channels, making it much easier for the audience to retain brand identity.
• As in 2007, there are three different measures and a total of 15 direct questions on VOA TV reach in the 2009 survey. The total reach measure for VOA TV is an unduplicated summary of three different measures of reach: (a) reach of VOA TV as a channel or brand (“apart from today, when was the last time you watched VOA TV?”); (b) reach of the sum of all VOA TV programs included in the survey (a total of 13 programs); and (c) reach of any other program not specifically mentioned in the survey but that respondents believed they had watched.

• The first measure of VOA TV reach in the survey is the standard question that measures VOA TV as a channel. This same question has been used in the two previous surveys in 2006 and 2007. These surveys also had the same sample design as the 2009 study, thus making the values of this question comparable for all three surveys. The 2009 survey indicates VOA TV has a weekly reach of 1.8 percent and an annual reach of 4.9 percent when it is measured as a channel. The weekly reach of VOA TV measured as a channel is similar to the weekly reach in 2006 (1.5 percent) and significantly below the weekly reach of VOA TV in 2007 (5 percent).
• The annual reach figure in 2009 is also significantly smaller than the 10.8 percent annual reach from the 2007 data. On one side, this drop in weekly reach should be interpreted in conjunction with the lower level of awareness of VOA TV this year. It could be argued that since VOA TV is not a channel, it makes it difficult for respondents to answer standard questions about awareness and reach that are formulated as if VOA TV were a channel.

• On the other side, additional qualitative research could help in better understanding the reach and awareness figures for VOA TV in 2009, a year when VOA TV has been particularly active reporting U.S. events (such as the global financial crisis and the election of President Obama) that have gained a lot of attention in Indonesia and elsewhere, and that might have anticipated audience growth.
• As in the 2007 survey, VOA TV audiences were also measured by asking respondents about different VOA TV programs individually. The main reason for adding these questions is a response to the caveats explained above: VOA TV is not a channel, and it is generally not recognized as an individual media entity. Its programs air on some of Indonesia’s domestic TV channels. Both self-contained programs (e.g, Dunia Kita) and short VOA-supplied program segments air on some of Indonesia’s domestic TV channels on a regular schedule. We included the names of 13 VOA TV programs and segments in the 2009 survey―the 2007 survey included 17. We asked respondents if they had watched each of these programs, and if yes, when was the last time they watched it. When we combine the responses to all the questions on the 13 VOA TV programs included in the survey, the data suggest that 8.9 percent of Indonesians had watched at least one of these VOA TV programs at least once in the preceding week. In other words, the weekly audience of VOA TV programming according to this composite measure equals 8.9 percent. In the 2007 survey, this composite measure of weekly reach added up to 15.5 percent .
• Some of the most popular VOA TV programs are VOA inserts on RCTI’s Seputar Indonesia Pagi (3.6 percent weekly reach) and SCTV’s Liputan 6 Siang (2.9 percent weekly reach), Dunia Kita (2.6 percent weekly reach) and Laporan VOA (2.5 percent weekly reach) on Metro TV. RCTI, SCTV and Metro TV are all leading national television stations in Indonesia.

• Finally, because, in addition to its regularly scheduled programs and segments, the VOA Indonesian service also places ad hoc stories and features on Indonesian stations on a frequent basis, the questionnaire included a question asking whether respondents had seen any special reports from VOA other than those specifically listed by name. Exactly 0.9 percent of respondents reported having seen such inserts in the previous week, compared to 2.9 percent in the previous survey.
• Combining the three measures outlined above, the final weekly reach figure for VOA TV, as indicated by the 2009 survey, is 9.5 percent. This figure is an unduplicated measure that summarizes all the questions devoted to VOA TV reach in the survey .
• In any case, it is important to point out that there are still some problems in measuring VOA TV by program. Specifically, there is also indication of possible audience overestimation in 2009 survey, mostly connected to respondents’ overload. First, there were roughly 40 questions in the survey directly or indirectly devoted to measuring the same variable: VOA TV reach.
• At a minimum, any respondent was asked 15 yes/no questions about their VOA TV watching behaviour. Some respondents may have answered “yes” to at least one of these questions because they felt tired or embarrassed or wanted to please the insistent interviewer. These types of respondent biases are extensively documented in the literature on research methods in developing countries . Second, the survey took on average one hour to complete.

This is a problem related to non-sampling error. Non-sampling error refers to an interviewer’s or respondent’s error, or any error related to questionnaire or question design—in sum, any error related to measurement. As its name denotes, non-sampling errors are not connected to sample design—and thus the existence or volume of this type of error cannot be measured statistically (unless a separate study is conducted to detect it) . However, the existence of non-sampling error in measurement of VOA TV reach by program is evident in the survey question about perceived trustworthiness of VOA TV (asked right after the battery of questions on VOA TV reach).

• Those who said they had watched VOA TV at least once in the previous 12 months (whether when asked about VOA TV as a channel, a set of VOA TV programs, or any other VOA TV production) had to answer the question about perceived trustworthiness―exactly 17.9 percent of the sample, or 536 respondents. However, 56 percent of the annual VOA TV audience did not respond to the trustworthiness question, saying they had not watched VOA TV in the previous 12 months. This puts in doubt the value of their responses on VOA TV reach. As a result, this report provides data on VOA TV trustworthiness based on the responses from the sub-sample that stated they had watched VOA TV when measured as a channel (a measure that is less contaminated by response error). However, the most important point here is that conclusions based on the composite measure of VOA TV reach might lack validity.
• VOA TV programs are perceived as trustworthy by most of their audience (exactly 94 percent). The leading national TV stations enjoy similar levels of perceived trustworthiness. In fact, perceived trustworthiness seems to be so high across the evaluated channels that there is hardly any variability in the data.
• As mentioned above, most international TV stations in Indonesia reach their audiences through subscription-based satellite and cable service. Despite a growing number of service providers, satellite and cable are not widespread. Only 14 percent of households subscribe to satellite television; 3 percent have cable service. Al Jazeera has been available on satellite in Indonesia since 2006. The gradual growth of satellite television in the country, together with the Islamic identity of this station, might help explain why despite broadcasting in English, Al Jazeera reaches 1.2 percent of the Indonesian population weekly and 7.0 percent annually. The weekly reach of CNN is similar (1.0 percent), although it has a lower annual reach (3.5 percent) than does Al Jazeera. The weekly reach of VOA TV (when measured as a channel), CNN and Al Jazeera were all within the margin of error for the sample study by April 2009.
• The demographic profile of the VOA TV audience is quite similar to that of VOA Radio listeners. In terms of gender and residence, the VOA TV audience is roughly split in half. Fifty-five percent of the audience are male, and the same percentage lives in urban areas. Fourteen percent have a least some post-secondary education (compared to 8 percent of the general population).