Protests and television: Demonstrations increase viewership

Protests in Serbia are a magnet for television audiences, especially when they become violent or there are reactions from the police, according to data on the viewership of cable televisions that broadcast protests live.

A cynic would say that these demonstrations lack the masses on the street, but that's why there are as many fans or curious people in front of the TVs as you want.

But, according to our interlocutors, the heads of Belgrade television stations N1 and Euronews, whether there are fewer or more people on the streets is never directly related to the number of viewers in front of small screens.

Violence means higher ratings

On Sunday, December 24, at 19:30 p.m., while the "siege" of the City Assembly was going on, as many as 34,3 percent of those who watched cable television via SBB had N1 on, which was broadcasting the protests.

That's three to four times the share (the share of the total number of people watching television at one time) than that news channel usually has at that time.

"N1 always has a large viewership during live broadcasts of events of importance to society," says TV program director Igor Božić. He adds that it was the same after the mass murders in May, and that during this post-election crisis, N1 is the most watched channel on SBB's network.

But the peak viewership is always during protests. "Given that it is prime time, it is clear that the largest number of viewers are 'stuck' for our program because of what is happening on the streets," adds Božić for "Vreme".

Viewers with the Telekom network can follow the protests on Euronews, which is watched by only 0,3 to 0,4 percent of people on Sunday afternoons. But last week, during the violent protests, the stock jumped to as high as 6,3 - about XNUMX times higher than usual.

"Information channels always increase when something extraordinary happens, especially if it has something to do with the safety of viewers," says the editor-in-chief of that television, Bojan Brkić, for "Vreme".

As he adds, it helps when you have reporters on the spot, and when the audience doesn't see you as "scared" and supporters of the government and the opposition watch you.

However, as "Vreme" learns, TV Informer, a television whose viewership is normally measured in millions on Telekom's network, also recorded a high share that week - about four percent on average throughout the day. They also broadcast the protests, only in their own, pro-regime way.

Interestingly, the viewership of both N1 and Euronews was much lower on Monday evening - even then there were protests, only quite peaceful ones. Higher than usual, but nowhere near Sunday's.

The protests are not only watched by opponents of the government

If all television viewers, and those who passionately follow reports and recordings from social networks, were added up, it would probably be hundreds of thousands of people who are very interested in the protests.

On the other hand, barely over a thousand people gather on the streets for days, according to the count of the Archives of Public Meetings. And that number reached its peak on Sunday, when there were about 7500 people in front of the Republican Election Commission, but the majority dispersed when the City Assembly was stormed.

"I don't know if it is realistic to relate the number of people at the protests to the number of people in front of the screen," says Igor Božić. "There are many factors that make people decide to come out and demonstrate."

The television program, he says, is a window to see the bigger picture. "Perhaps not everyone who watches N1 is a supporter of the opposition, but they want to be properly informed." However the president and his associates present our program."

And Bojan Brkić thinks that we should not expect a correlation between the number of participants in the meeting and the number of the audience that watches the event on television, listens to it or reads it in the media.

"It's one thing to be interested in an event, and another to get involved." People are interested, but they don't participate for various reasons, from prosaic ones like obligations, work, lack of time, transportation, to essential ones - that they don't support what's happening."

Brkić estimates that those who wanted the protest to fail and who are condemning it also contributed to the jump in viewership on Sunday. "The previous very big jump in viewership was on the day of the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Everyone watched and cheered, no one went to war."