Audience Concentration

According to the MOM's methodology, cross-media concentration is based on the audience shares of top 4 media groups in the sector.

Only 25 percent of the population read daily newspapers and 79.2 percent of the population use the Internet in 2020. The rate of those who say “I never access the Internet” is 20.8 percent. In 2019, 25.3 percent of the population listen to the radio and 89.6 percent watch TV (KONDA Barometer 2019-2020 Data).

However, there is no data set by KONDA giving information concerning the TV and radio consumption rate in 2020. In addition, as a research covering the year 2020 could not be conducted for the media consumption data that we need to use in the measurement of "cross-media ownership concentration," the MOM team cannot specify cross-media ownership rates for 2020. However, with the other data we obtained, we interpret the "audience concentration" based on the four largest companies in the industry.

Additionaly, since there is no reliable data on the visits of web portals for 2020, we conclude the ratios by evaluating the rates of TV viewing, radio-listening and newspaper-reading. Demirören (35.57%) is the largest media group with the highest viewer/listener/reader ratios. Kalyon/Turkuvaz (30.76%) follows Demirören and Doğuş has the 28.71 percent of total audience. Although there is no data on the rate of digital media followers/visits, when we look at the follower rates based on newspapers, radio and TV channels, it is seen that 95.04 percent of the followers are shared by three media groups.

Demirören and Kalyon are the only groups that invest in four areas such as radio, television, newspaper and website. The state broadcaster TRT has an audience rate of 18.81 percent with its channels on TV and radio. Estetik Publishing, transferred to Beme Media AG in 2020, known for its anti-government broadcasting, has a follower rate of 13.44 percent (excluding the data of sozcu.com.tr, which ranks second in the top ten news portals list). Hayat Görsel Publishing, which has investments in all three sections such as TV, radio and internet news portals, has a 10.21 percent and Ciner Group, which only invested in the TV and digital news industry after closing Habertürk newspaper in 2018, has 7.74 percent of followers.

In this section, the information published was based on the audience concentration data of the top four media outlets only.

Television:

41 percent of TV Audience (of top 10 TVs) is shared by 4 companies; so, it shows medium concentration level in terms audience share. Kalyon Media reaches the largest audience share in this market (13.09%). State-run TRT, criticized for pro-government broadcasting, follows it with nearly 12.37 percent of audience share. Demirören comes third with 9.3 percent of the audience. Doğuş Media Group, the management of which is considered to be directly intervened by top government officials, holds 6.21 percent of the TV audience in Turkey.

Radio:

The radio sector in Turkey shows a medium concentration in terms of audience, with the major four companies reaching 42 percent of the audience. A large part (22.5%) of the radio audience in Turkey is held by Doğuş Media Group. TRT stations hold 11.3 percent  of radio listeners. Hayat Görsel Yayıncılık, having close ties with the government, holds 6.4 percent percent of radio listeners. Demirören Group is fourth with 2.8 of percent radio listeners.

Print: 

The distribution data of print media in Turkey is an issue of large debate. As the circulation shares of most print outlets were found to be unreliable, the MOM team in Turkey finally had to “make do” with the official numbers. According to these numbers, print media circulations are highly concentrated with four major owners holding 58 percent of readership. These are Demirören (23,47%), Kalyon/Turkuvaz Media (15,57%), BEME Media (Estetik Yayıncılık) (13.44%) and Türk Medya Group (5.35%).

Online:

Online news media largely coincide with major print outlets in Turkey. 10 out of 15 online news portals with a high audience are websites of newspapers or TV outlets. The MOM team was unable to provide reliable access to the average Internet news portal follower data rates for 2020. However, we were able to reach Gemius Audience's list of the top ten news sites most accessed in the last quarter of 2020. This list has a total of 4 web portals from the two big pro-government groups (Kalyon and Demirören). There are only three web portals (sozcu.com.tr, onedio.com and mynet.com) known for not publishing pro-government news in the top ten list. Therefore, we can say that online audience data indicate a very high concentration rate.