First, on November 5, the Director General of the Public Service, Boris Raonić, triumphantly announced on Facebook that RTCG is the most powerful media in Montenegro and that their show "Naglas" was the most watched prime-time program in the country in October, with a total share of 18,42 percent, noting that this is proof that a cultured, polite, but also direct and informative dialogue has an audience. The same information was then published on the RTCG portal and in the news programs of Television of Montenegro.
Two days later, Television Vijesti announced that the talk show "Načisto" was the most watched in October, in prime time, i.e. in the period from 20 pm to 22 pm. To confirm and publish this data, we previously consulted Crnogorski Telekom, which conducts these ratings measurements every day, with the IPSOS agency. After that, we asked Telekom: which show was the most watched in prime time in October: "Naglas" or "Načisto".
"Taking into account the average of premiere broadcasts, during October, the show Načisto had a viewership (share) of 18.42%, and the show Naglas 18.01%," the company announced.
Telekom responded that, after a detailed review of the case, it was determined that this was probably an error in interpreting the data generated by the audience measurement modules according to various parameters, and that there had been no similar situations in the previous period.
"Certain measures were taken without delay after the disputed publication, which resulted in the correction of the incorrectly communicated data in the text published on the rtcg.me portal," said Telekom.
The original information on the RTCG portal has been changed, so it now states that "Naglas" was the most watched show in their time slot in October and one of the most watched in Montenegro of all prime-time shows. However, the Public Service Broadcaster did not apologize for publishing the incorrect information or announce that they had previously misinformed the public. And this was directly to the detriment of Television Vijesti, whose show "Načisto" has been the most watched show in prime-time in Montenegro for years.
They did not answer our questions about why they did not do this, who is responsible for publishing the incorrect data, and whether they sought authorization for its publication from Telekom.
RTCG Council member Marijana Camović - Velicković told Television Vijesti that she would request that this case be discussed at the next session of the Public Service Council.
"Because the issue of trust in the programs broadcast by RTCG is one of the ways in which we measure, and in which we should evaluate, as the Council, the work of the Director General. And now the question is how to do that, when we receive false positive data on citizens' trust in what RTCG broadcasts, so that is something that is a topic, something that is a question. I usually doubt the data, when it comes to the trust that management represents to us - both when it comes to television and the portal - and this latest is finally an indicator that the data is really being falsified," she assessed.
And Telekom told us that they will organize additional training and make changes to the contracts they have with television stations, under which they provide them with daily data on the total and viewership of all individual shows.
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