Audience measurement organisations
The DRC does not have diversified professional bodies for audience measurement or even media ratings. There are, however, some reports of surveys conducted by Target and similar companies, which are carried out to "better guide the choices of advertisers, communication agencies and media." The media audience in the DRC is determined not by a deliberate and plural choice of listeners and viewers but by the constraints that limit their choices, in terms of material and contextual possibilities. On a material level, access remains conditioned by financial capabilities. Many Congolese would like to have a TV set that unfortunately costs far more than a small portable radio, especially in the hinterland. From a contextual point of view, the country continues to face a shortage of electricity distribution. And the choice of television becomes impossible, including in cities there are areas not provided or irregularly provided with electricity. It is this contextual difficulty that explains why radio is largely preferred as a medium.
For Target, poor access to electricity is a principal cause of the use of radio, which "grew by 11 percent between 2017 and 2018 to reach 72 percent, against 48 percent for television and 9 percent for cable channels." This situation is reinforced by the more and more regular interruptions of the Internet, which has become a means for the political regime in place to control and restrict the freedom of criticism from media in general. The print media occupy the last place for two essential reasons: there are limited to main towns, most of Congolese population cannot afford their daily cost and reading does not yet appear to be a point of attraction for the Congolese in general and for young in particular.