Social media sites boost TV viewership — experts

AMMAN — Social networking sites can help TV channels increase their viewership tremendously, according to media experts.

Public and private TV stations can use sites such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook to reach a wider audience and thus drive traffic to their channels, the experts said on the sidelines of a conference on the current state of media held this week by the Jordan Press Association.

“We at Jordan TV believe that social networking sites have a great role to play in driving traffic and increasing viewership. Thus, we have allocated special teams to focus on this issue and have a department to handle social media,” Mohammad Tarawneh, director general of the Jordan Radio and Television Corporation, told The Jordan Times at the event.

“TV stations need to focus on social media sites because they are becoming increasingly dominant among all segments of society,” Tarawneh said Monday.

Walid Ateyyat, news director at Ro’ya TV station, echoed Tarawneh’s remarks.

“YouTube and Facebook in particular drive tremendous traffic and viewership to the channel,” he told The Jordan Times.

“The majority of viewers watch the channel due to its activity on social networking sites. People are very eager to watch videos,” said Ateyyat, noting that channels should pay more attention to social media in light of the increasing number of Internet users and smartphone owners.

According to recent figures by the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, by the end of June this year, the number of Internet users in Jordan reached 6.2 million, compared to 5.7 million at the same time last year. 

The number of Internet subscribers in the Kingdom reached 2.029 million at the end of June, compared with 1.7 million at the end of 2014.

Smartphone penetration in Jordan is estimated at more than 60 per cent, while there are 12.3 million active mobile subscriptions in the Kingdom.