Major survey highlights Jordan's cellular boom: A full 71% of Jordanian households have a cellular line, only 5% short of the fixed line household penetration which stands at 76%.

January 30, 2005

The Arab Advisors Group conducted a major comprehensive survey of the media and telecom usage habits of the population of three major cities of Jordan (Amman, Irbid and Zarqa) between November 2004 and Jan 2005. On the TV front, it is evident that the boom in Sat TV ownership in the country (91% of households have a Sat TV) has hurt the terrestrial TV channels, as only 49% continue to watch terrestrial TV channels. A full 83% of Jordanians watch news programs followed by family entertainment programs at 78%. The survey also probed the channels the households watched in the categories of: News Channels, Music Channels, Entertainment Channels, Sport Channels and Religion Channels. On the telecom front, the survey revealed that the predominant way to make international calls was through the fixed line (41.7% of households) as opposed to international calls made using cellular lines (28.4%). A full 76% of households have a fixed line and a respectable 71% have a cellular line. The surevy probed ILD calling patterns, destinations, and preference for calling times. On the Internet and media and telecom use front, the survey looked at dialup and broadband Internet usage, market shares of providers and custom level of satisfaction among many other matters.

Arab Advisors Group’s major analytical survey of Jordan’s population was scientifically done. The survey involved face to face interviews with 606 people from different households in Jordan selected randomly from different areas in the city in a manner proportionate to the population size of the different areas. Respondents were above 15 years of age. The survey has a confidence level of 99% with a margin of error of 5.25%. Please contact us to get a copy of the survey questions.

The survey is a multi client project of Arab Advisors custom research and consulting service. The study was not commissioned by any party and is available for all companies and interested parties.

The full results of the survey (including detailed statistical analysis and relevant cross tabulations) are available in two major reports “Jordan Households Telecom Service Survey 2005” and “Jordan Households Media Survey 2005”.

The report “Jordan Households Telecom Service Survey 2005” can be purchased from the Arab Advisors Group for only US$ 1,875 (Subscribers to Arab Advisors Strategic Research Services get a special discount of 33% making the applicable price only US$ 1,250). Please contact the Arab Advisors Group for a table of contents of this 49 pages and 79 exhibits report.

The report “Jordan Households Media Survey 2005” can be purchased from the Arab Advisors Group for only US$ 1,875 (Subscribers to Arab Advisors Strategic Research Services get a special discount of 33% making the applicable price only US$ 1,250). Please contact the Arab Advisors Group for a table of contents of this 67 pages and 109 exhibits report.

Both reports detail valuable demographic information such as level of education, marital status, household income level, age of respondents and gender.

Purchasing both reports also entails a 20% discount on the total price.

The “Jordan Households Media Survey 2005” reveals that the boom in Sat TV ownership in the country (91% of households have a Sat TV) has hurt the terrestrial TV channels, as only 49% continue to watch terrestrial TV channels in Jordan. A full 83% of Jordanians watch news programs followed by family entertainment programs at 78%.

On the Pay TV front, some 5% of households with Sat TV have access to Pay TV. The market shares of PAY TV providers (ART, ShowTime and ORBIT) are detailed and analyzed.

The survey report details all TV channels watched in Jordan (as reported by the respondents themselves), in the following categories: Arabic channels and non Arabic channels name recognition, Favorite Channels, Religious Channels, Sports Channels, General Entertainment, Music Channels and News Channels watched.

The respondents named and commented on close to 100 Sat TV channels. These channels include the following channels (in alphabetical order):

Abu Dhabi, Action, Ajman, Al Arabiya, Al Ekhbariya, Al Hurra,
AL Iraqiya, Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera Sports, Al Khalijiya, Al Majd,
Al Mustakila, Al Rai, Algeria, Animal Planet, ART, ART Movies,
ART Sports, Bahrain, BBC World, CCTV, CNN, Deera, Discovery,
Diyar, Dream 1, Dream 2, Dubai, Dubai Business, Dubai sports, DWTV, Egypt Satellite Channel, EIN, Emirates, ETV, Euronews, Eurosport, Fajr, Future, Infinity, Iqraa, Iraq, Jordan, Khalijiya,
Kuwait, Kuwait Youth, LBC, Lybia, Manar, Mazzika, MBC,MBC 2, MBC3, Mehwar, Melody, Morocco, Music Plus, Musica, Nagham,
NBA TV, NBN, New Sat TV, Nile TV, Nojoom, NTV, Oman, ONE TV
Palestine, Qatar Satellite, Rotana, Rotana Cinema, Rotana clip,
Rotana Tarab, RTL 1, Saudi 1, Saudi sports, Shababiya, Sharjah, Sharqiya, Spacetoons, Star Academy, Strike, Style, Sudan, Syria, TCM, Tunis, TV5, VOX, Yemen, Zen TV

The survey also probed and analyzed the trust worthiness of and audience shares of the following news channels: Al Mustakila, Al Ekhbariya, Al Hurra, Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya, BBC World, CNN, NBN.

On the radio front, more than 61% of respondents listen to the Radio, with a dominant preference for FM radio. The survey details the preferred location and frequency of radio listening as well as the types of programs preferred and the Radio stations preferred. Audience levels of the following radio channels are detailed:

Amman FM 99.0, Amman FM 88.0, Amman FM 96.3, French FM 90.0, Quran Station, Fann FM, Sawa Mood FM, Play FM, MBC FM, BBC Arabic, Monte Carlo and Other stations

The survey also revealed that only 20% Jordanians go to the Movie Theaters. The results rank the preferred cinemas that the residents of Jordan go to. Analyzed cinemas include: Galleria, Century, Le Royale, Grand Theaters (Mecca Mall), Al khayyam, Al Hussein, Concorde, Basman Philadelphia and Other

In addition 82% of respondents indicated that they read newspapers. The different market shares Al Rai , Al Dastour, Al Ghad, Jordan Times , Al Waseet, Al Mumtaz, Al Arab Al youm, Shihan, Al Kods Al Arabi, Daily Star and Al Hayat are detailed in the report.

The areas covered in the media survey include:

A) Satellite Dish Antenna
B) Pay TV
C) Satellite TV Channels Analysis
D) News Channels Trustworthiness
E) Terrestrial TV
F) TV Viewing Patterns
G) Radio
H) TV Interactivity
I) Movies
J) Newspapers

The “Jordan Households Telecom Service Survey 2005” reveals that the predominant way to make international calls was through the fixed line (41.7% of households) as opposed to international calls made using cellular lines (28.4%). A full 76% of households have a fixed line and a respectable 71% have a cellular line. The surevy probed ILD calling patterns, destinations, and preference for calling times. On the Internet use, the survey looked at dialup and broadband Internet usage, market shares of providers and custom level of satisfaction among many matters.

The survey probed the use, providers and market shares of the following telecom services:

q Fixed phone (local and national)
q Cellular phone (local)
q SMS
q Internet chatting
q Email
q Fixed phone (international)
q Postal Services
q Cellular phone (international)
q MMS
q Courier Services (Aramex, TNT, DHL, etc)
q Fax (local and/or international)
q Pay Phones

The areas covered in the telecom survey include:

A) Communication methods used.
B) International calling use.
C) Cellular use.
D) Cellular handset models.
E) SMS use.
F) Personal Computers.
G) Internet (dialup and broadband) use.

Any investment in any one of these two reports will count towards attending Arab Advisors’ second annual Media and Telecoms Convergence Conference on June 11 & 12 2005. More information on the conference can be seen at http://www.arabadvisors.com/Convergence/schedule.htm. Alternatively contact the Arab Advisors Group for full information on the conference, agenda and sponsorship opportunities.

To date, Arab Advisors Group has served more than 210 global and regional companies by providing reliable research analysis and forecasts of Arab communications markets to these clients.