Together with the Mediascope research company, NTV became the first television channel to conduct a study of its Moscow audience on YouTube using audio watermarking technology. The measurements were made with the help of audio labels and special software that was installed on their devices.
A total of 2,000 respondents from Moscow took part in the study between July and September 2020, and the results showed that about 15% of Muscovites aged 18+ watched NTV’s premiere content on YouTube on average once per month and that they watched this content on all types of devices (desktops, television sets, and mobile screens).
As of today, NTV leads among Russian TV channels on YouTube. The total number of subscribers to NTV and Segodnya on the platform has exceeded 11.5 million, and their content has received 12.6 billion views.
According to the study, NTV’s news program Segodnya (Today) leads on YouTube in terms of views (78.8 million). Maska (The Masked Singer) comes in second place with 64.9 million views, and the series Likhach (Daredevil) comes in third place with 44.3 million views. Online viewing habits are very similar to those of television viewing. For example, the average rating of NTV’s evening news program Sedognya Vecherom (Tonight) at 19:00 is 3.3% (11.7% share) according to Mediascope data among viewers aged 18+ who live in cities with a population of more than 100,000 people.
Maska, whose finale got a record rating of 10.7% and 28.5% share, became the most popular entertainment program on Russian television over the past four years and the best musical show of the past seven years. Meanwhile, Likhach is in top place among NTV series: its rating since the start of the year is 4.6% and the share is 16.6%, according to Mediascope.