Citizen TV maintained a strong lead in YouTube audience after it tripled its closest competitor, NTV, in President William Ruto's inauguration event viewership on Tuesday, September 13.
Media Council of Kenya (MCK) data released on Wednesday, September 14, showed that the Royal Media Services (RMS)-owned station drew an average of 232,387 viewers followed by NTV which had 67,908.
Nation Newspaper's YouTube channel came in third with 24,596 followed by KBC which managed a paltry 18,368, despite being a state-funded outlet.
MCK, which tracked the viewership between 12:45p.m. and 3:45p.m., also showed that audience across the board was highest at 1:15p.m. when former President Uhuru Kenyatta handed over the instrument of power to his successor at Kasarani Stadium.
At that moment, Citizen TV viewership also ballooned to 296,961 ahead of NTV's 90,792.
At 12:45p.m. during Ruto's swearing in ceremony, Citizen TV still maintained the lead with an audience of 263,034 followed by NTV at 66,093.
Kenyans.co.ke, Africa Uncensored and Switch TV were the only digital-only media outlets that were featured on the list.
Citizen TV still maintained the lead despite an earlier arrangement that only permitted local media houses to obtain a feed from a contracted private firm.
Before the event, KBC was touted to have obtained exclusive rights to cover the event conclusively but the privilege did not reflect on the MCK leaderboard.
The state-owned station, however, experienced a spike in viewership to over 18,000 from its usual audience that averages at 1,000.
MCK Chief Office David Omwoyo told Kenyans.co.ke that only data from YouTube is available for now but total viewership figures both on TV and online would be availed in a week's time.
From the onset, President William Ruto made it clear that he had his focus on boosting KBC's image and shore up its financial muscle.
"It must operate differently, otherwise nobody is going to advertise, we must run KBC as a commercial entity, it must make money, it must run itself we cannot continue to fund KBC from public coffers.
“The problem of KBC in the past is that it became a mouthpiece of whoever was in government and it lost credibility, it must keep to being objective, it must keep being balanced, it cannot be a place where they report the President from morning to evening,” Ruto stated in an interview with KTN News.
