June 25, 2021
A new survey of Iranian broadcasting preferences shows that state radio and television is the least popular broadcaster, while Iran International an outlet the regime attacks loudly and frequently is the most popular.
The survey was conducted by a group of Iranians based in the Netherlands and known as The Group for Analyzing and Measuring Attitudes in Iran (GAMAAN). It was based on interviews with 27,000 literate Iranian adults in the last half of February.
As shown in Figure 1, some 97 percent of the population use social media daily or weekly to access news and information about Iran and the world while 55 percent daily or weekly watch satellite television channels that are produced abroad by regime opponents. That shows a surprising outright majority turning to the opposition for their news. On the other hand, 60 percent reported “never” watching the IRIB’s TV news broadcasting. Iran has never been a newspaper-reading society and a mere 3 percent of those surveyed reported reading newspapers daily or weekly.
Figure 2 indicates that Iran International and Manoto are the most popular broadcast outlets among Iranians with 48 percent and 43 percent of Iranians watching them daily or weekly, respectively. BBC Persian ranked third with 30 percent of the public watching daily or weekly.
The other broadcast outlets are clustered fairly closely from 27 percent down to 23 percent with Iranian state broadcasting last in popularity.
Iran International and Manoto (Me and You in Farsi) are both based in London. They do not detail their funding, though Iran International is widely believed to be funded by Saudi Arabia.
Figure 3 shows how the Iranian public trusts the broadcasters. A majority trusts only two of the outlets Iran international at 53 percent and Manoto at 51 percent trusting them “a great deal” or “a fair amount.”
VOA Persian and Radio Farda, both run by the US government, follow with almost identical trust numbers of 43 percent and 42 percent respectively.
BBC Persian came in at 28 percent and Iranian state broadcasting at a mere 14 percent.
Figure 4 shows the results when Iranians were asked to judge the political affiliations of the various outlets. For state broadcasting, 64 percent perceived it to be a mouthpiece for the Principleist faction in Iran As for BBC Persian, the largest bloc of respondents of 30 percent rated it as pro-Reformist. For Iran International, Manoto and VOA Persian, the largest blocs, close to half in each case, rated then as “opposed to the Islamic Republic. For Radio Farda, the largest bloc said they didn’t know how that station leaned.
The survey also asked the respondents where they stood politically. Some 53 percent advocated regime change, while 26 percent said they wanted to see structural change or evolution over time away from the Islamic Republic and 8 percent advocated reforms within the framework of the Islamic Republic. Thirteen percent supported the system as it now exists.