On October 2, 2021, self-government elections were held in Georgia. Throughout the day, Georgian media covered the events in the polling stations and district election commissions on a regular basis. Naturally, TV viewing changes to some extent during the pre-election period and directly during the elections. For the most part, the change in the behavior of the TV viewers depends on the current events in the country, as well as the importance of the elections. On Election Day Even ranking of most popular channels is changing. For example, TV viewers in Georgia prefer different channels on Election Day: Imedi TV had the most viewers on the day of the elections in 2021, but last year, on the day of the parliamentary elections, October 31, 2020, Mtavari Arkhi attracted the most viewers in 7 big cities in Georgia. 

On the day of elections, October 2, 2021, an average of 44 thousand viewers per minute watched Imedi TV in the seven largest cities of Georgia, which is more than the number of viewers of Mtavari Arkhi by 6 thousand. On the day of the 2020 parliamentary elections, October 31, Mtavari Arkhi had an average of 57 thousand viewers per minute and Imedi TV had 48 thousand viewers. As for the other most watched TV channels, their order has not changed during the last two elections (graph 1).

Graph 1

Analysis of data by cities shows that on October 2, Imedi TV was on average watched by 36 thousand viewers per minute in Tbilisi and Mtavari Arkhi – 27 thousand viewers. On the day of the 2020 parliamentary elections, Imedi TV had 34 thousand viewers in Tbilisi and Mtavari Arkhi had an average of 41 thousand viewers per minute. From major channels, Georgian Public Broadcaster 1 had the fewest viewers in Tbilisi during both elections.

Graph 2

The results are different in the other six cities (Batumi, Kutaisi, Rustavi, Zugdidi, Poti and Gori). During both elections, Mtavari Arkhi had more viewers than Imedi TV (Graph 3). It’s also noteworthy that if in 2020 the third most popular channel was Rustavi 2, now TV Pirveliholds this position in the other six cities.

Graph 3

Overall, the composition of the five most popular channels during the 2020 and 2021 elections is largely unchanged. Imedi TV and Mtavari Arkhi share the first place. Compared to the previous elections, Rustavi 2 is giving up its positions in 6 cities, which is gradually being replaced by TV Pirveli.

The data are based on 7 cities of Georgia (Tbilisi, Rustavi, Gori, Batumi, Kutaisi, Zugdidi, Poti), which are measured by the company "Tri Media Intelligence". Data are taken from the population aged 18+ including guests / Live.