Audience measurement organisations
There are no audience measurement organisations in Niger, mainly because of the lack of polling agencies. During elections, the Constitution forbids publishing polls which could influence their outcome. Only the Electoral Commission is allowed to disclose electoral results. In 2017, a new polling agency called Institut Danni Search, in partnership with the Ecole Supérieure de Statistique et Informatique (Higher School of Statistics and Informatics - ESSI), conducted a survey on the audience of news programmes in all languages available in the city of Niamey on Sunday, 15 October, 2017. This audiometer focused on both newspaper and television channels. The aim was to guide decision-making on supply and demand for media services on the one hand and to fill the gap related to the lack of audience measurement in Niger.
The methodology used was a mix of quota and route techniques for a structural and spatial representation of the Niamey population of more than 18 years of age. The margin of error for each of the results below is empirically 3.20 percent.
The first result of the survey is that 74.57 percent of Niameans follow news on TV and 51.06 percent also on radio, regardless of language. Regarding TV, 59.06 percent of viewers mainly follow news editions in French and 40.94 percent in one of the national languages; on radio, 43.33 percent goes to French editions and 56.67 percent to one of the national languages.
The main news editions on TV channels (all languages included), come in the following order: 1. Bonferey for 32.81 percent of the population of Niamey; 2. Sahel TV: 17.26 percent; 3. Dounia: 13.27 percent; 4. Labari: 10.41 percent; 5. Saraounia: 5.71 percent; 6. Ténéré: 4.99 percent; 7. Africable: 3.42 percent; 8. Canal 3: 3.42 percent; each other TV channel scores less than 3 percent.
The following TVs were cited as the top information channel in this order: 1. Bonferey for 55.21 percent of the population of Niamey (which goes up to 55 percent when considering the top three news channels); 2. Sahel TV: 32.38 percent; 3. Dounia: 30.53 percent; 4. Labari: 26.96 percent; 5. Saraounia: 20.11 percent; 6. Ténéré: 17.97 percent; 7. Canal 3: 13.55 percent; 8. Niger 24: 11.41 percent; the other chains are cited by less than 10 percent of the population each.
The following radios were cited as top information channels in this order (all languages included): 1. Anfani: 25.00 percent; 2. Bonferey: 14.79 percent; 3. Voix du Sahel: 13.13 percent; 4. Dounia: 6.46 percent; 5. Saraounia: 6.04 percent; 6. Labari: 5.83 percent; 7. Ténéré: 3.54 percent; 8. Alternative: 3.33 percent; 9. Canal 3: 3.33 percent; 10. Niger 24: 3.33 percent; each other radio scores less than 3 percent.
The radios cited among the top three information channels ranked in the following order: 1. Anfani: 40.21 percent; 2. Bonferey: 34.58 percent; 3. Voix du Sahel: 32.50 percent; 4. Saraounia: 20.21 percent; 5. Dounia: 16.25 percent; 6. Labari: 13.33 percent; 7. Niger 24: 13.33 percent; 8. Ténéré: 11.25 percent; the other radio channels are cited by less than 10 percent of the population.
Finally, the survey showed that 31.61 percent of those who occasionally read newspapers, printed or digital, have a level of education at least equal to college.