TGI Survey Shows Sharp Rise in Ultra-Orthodox Radio Listenership, Decline in Print Newspaper Exposure

The latest TGI survey, released on Wednesday, reveals significant growth in listenership among ultra-Orthodox radio stations in Israel. Radio Kol Chai Music leads this trend with a 5.5% exposure rate, followed by Radio Kol Chai at 5.1%. Radio Kol Play and Radio Kol Barama also saw increases, reaching 4.2% and 4.1% exposure respectively. However, overall weekday radio listenership declined slightly to 55.6%. The "Kan" radio group remains the annual leader with 33.2% listenership, a slight drop from 33.9% the previous year. Notably, Galei Tzahal (IDF Radio) decreased to 30.2% from 32.6%, with its flagship station Galgalatz remaining the most listened to in Israel at 23.6%. Kan Reshet Bet and Kan Gimel experienced declines and stability respectively, while Kan Morasha rose to 5.2%. Galei Tzahal's station commander Tal Lev Ram emphasized their commitment to serving soldiers and their families.

In the public broadcasting sector, the leading current affairs program for the first half of 2026 is "Kalman Liverman" on Kan Reshet Bet, attracting 466,000 daily listeners. Kan CEO Golan Yochpaz highlighted the strength and independence of their public radio stations. Regional and sectoral stations also showed growth, with Eco99fm leading at 8.7%, followed by Galei Yisrael at 7.2%, Radius 100FM at 7.1%, Radio Lev HaMedina at 5.7%, and Radio Yerushalayim at 3.7%. Conversely, stations like Radio 103FM, Radio Tel Aviv, Radio Haifa, and Radio Tzafon saw declines.

Meanwhile, print newspapers continue to experience a steady decline in exposure. Overall daily newspaper exposure dropped to 33.5%, with weekend exposure falling to 40.1%. Israel Hayom remains the leading daily newspaper with a 22.0% annual exposure, increasing to 22.5% in the latest half-year period. Yedioth Ahronoth suffered a significant decline to 15.3%, widening the gap with Israel Hayom to 6.7 percentage points. Haaretz saw a slight annual increase to 5.2% and a jump to 6.1% in the recent half-year. Globes and Maariv also recorded modest gains. On weekends, Israel Hayom holds first place at 24.4%, while Yedioth Ahronoth dropped to 18.3%. Other weekend newspapers, including Besheva, Haaretz, Maariv, Mikor Rishon, and Globes, all experienced declines. In the economic daily press, Calcalist leads with 8.2%, TheMarker rose to 5.5%, and Globes increased to 4.6%, with Globes being the only one showing annual growth.