Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera channels are the most watched TV channels among Syrians, as they are the most concerned with the Syrian crisis, a new survey has found.
Surprisingly, Orient TV came in the third place while some international Arabic-speaking satellite channels were at the bottom of the list.
The results were published in a report, 'Study of Syrian Audiences', published by the Media Cooperation and Communication Center in cooperation with a team of researchers at the American University in Beirut.
The project was supervised by Prof. Jad Malke and funded by the German Foreign Ministry.
The research included Syrian audiences in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, and both regime-held and the opposition-held areas.
Orient TV, an opposition channel was especially popular in Turkey, where there are many Syrians inside and outside camps. In contrast, the TV channels which emerged later as opposition channels came at the bottom of the list, suggesting the visual media established to promote the revolution has not been able to compensate for its lack of professionalism, and consequently has failed to reach Syrian audiences. The opposition failed to launch a channel that serves the Syrians and expresses their aspirations.
BBC came in the seventh place after the Lebanese al-Mayadin and al-Jadid channels. Sky News Arabia, which is cautious in its position towards the Arab Spring, came in the ninth place, while France 24 was not listed in the first ten TV channels.
The survey was completed by 1,400 Syrians living inside and outside Syria. Here are the first ten TV channels:
1. Al Arabiya
2. Al Jazeera
3. Orient
4.Sama
5.Al-Jadeed
6.Al-Mayadin
7.BBC
8.Syrian News
9.Sky News Arabia
10.Syrian Satellite Channel
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