1.675 million people listen to Kan radio stations on a daily basis.
By GREER FAY CASHMANUpdated: JANUARY 25, 2018 04:25FILE PHOTO: Employees work in the offices of Kan, the new Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation, in Tel Aviv, Israel November 3, 2016.(photo credit: REUTERS)
In a report issued on Wednesday by Kan, the call sign of the Israel Broadcasting Corporation, it appears that despite contentions by various Knesset members who have advocated the closure of public broadcasting for lack of listeners and viewers, the ratings have not only increased in most cases but have even surpassed previous records over the past ten years.A Target Group Index survey by Kantar Media which interviewed 4.4 million Israelis over the age of 18, indicates that 1,675,000 people listen to Kan radio stations on a daily basis.This represents an 8.9% increase over the same period in the previous year, during the first four and a half months of which the stations were still under the aegis of the now-defunct Israel Broadcasting Authority.Kan Reshet Gimmel’s ratings went up from 14.5% in the previous year to 17.2% over the past year, evidence that patriotism is on the upswing as the station plays exclusively Israeli music.Music station Kan 88, which offers a highly diverse range of styles and performing artists, has the highest ratings of all time with 30% reflecting an 8.93% increase.Notwithstanding complaints by some listeners that Arye Golan who anchors the early morning actuality and news program on Reshet Bet is too opinionated, the program aired between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. remains the most popular in its genre and has 472,000 regular listeners as against 423,000 in the previous year.Overall, Reshet Bet suffered a drop in ratings from 22% to 20.7%.This could explain the continued reshuffling of programs and anchors on Reshet Bet, and why Kan continues to broadcast in its running in period.Kalman Libeskind, who joined Kan when it began broadcasting in mid-May 2017, hosts an aggressive current affairs program together with Yossi Liberman from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. that garners a fairly steady pace of ratings of 320,000 listeners. Prize-winning social welfare activist Keren Neubach, whose two-hour program moved from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., received a 10% increase in rating, and Esti Perez, another prize-winning journalist who anchors the two-hour midday news and current affairs program, has 411,000 regular listeners, whereas a similar program on Army Radio has 384,000 listeners.Judging by the ratings Israelis much prefer music, news and current affairs to culture. Kan Tarbut, which replaced Reshet Alef, had a slight drop in ratings and scored only 3.23% compared to 3.83% the previous year.Ratings for classical music station The Voice of Music (Kol Hamusica) were at 5.5%, indicating that it has 240,000 regular listeners.