Report of the nationwide public opinion poll conducted in August 2020

1. Trends and Changes in the Choices of
Media and Consumption of Information of
the Ukrainians After 2019 Elections and
COVID-19 Outbreak
Report of the nationwide public opinion poll conducted in
August 2020

2. Media Consumption
Structure

3. Sources of Information
• COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown has made a significant
impact on media consumption of Ukrainians.
• In general we see increase of demand for information:
several minor sources (like national radio stations, local
TV, local papers) and two major sources (like social media
and relatives) has grown while others remained on the
same level.
• The age of respondents appears as one of the most
important factors which define choice of primary media
source: millennials (64%) and generation Z (70%) heavily
prefer social networks to television, while senior people
(85%) and retirees (90%, 60 years and older) are ardent
TV fans.
• Messengers (Telegram, Viber WhatsApp etc) are
information sources for the 21% of generation Z people
and 15% of millennials, people of different ages who live
in the metropolises (15%) and cities millionaires (24%).

5. TV Channels
Today the Big Five TV includes the same channels as it did in 2018: 1+1 with 47% of
audience (Ihor Kolomoyskiy), Ukraina with 38% of audience (Rinat Akhmetov), ICTV
with 37% of audience (Viktor Pinchuk), STB with 32% of audience (Viktor Pinchuk),
and Inter with 31% of audience(Dmytro Firtash, Serhiy Liovochkin).
All top channels have been losing their audience since 2018.
However, since February 2019 poll we see that 1+1, STB, Novyy channel and
National Public Broadcasting TV (UA: Pershyi) remained on the same level. Ukraina
and Inter have lost some share of their audience. At the same time such channels
as 112.Ukraina, NewsOne and ZIK (all are owned by Viktor Medvechuk) and Priamyi
(Petro Poroshenko) increased their audience.
Big Five are also the most trusted TV channels. In the last 18 months the level of
trust toward them has not changed. A the same time we can growing trust toward
news channels owned by Viktor Medvedchuk and Petro Poroshenko.
It is important to note that respondents from the western and central Ukraine have
often expressed their trust toward 1+1, ICTV, Priamyi, Espreso TV and 24 channel.
Respondents from both the southern and eastern regions preferred Inter, from the
southern – Ukraine, from the eastern – 112.Ukraina and NewsOne.
The voters of the “Servant of the People” and Batkivshchyna trusted more 1+1,
Ukraina and STB, voters of “Opposition Platform” – 112.Ukraina, NewsOne and
Ukraina, voters of “European Solidarity” – Priamyi, 5 channel, Espreso TV and ICTV.

8. Social Media
• Facebook is the most popular social network (58%)
followed by Instagram (25%). Twitter scored (8%),
Russian networks “Odnoklassnkiki” and “VKontakte” has
6% and 5% of audience respectively. 34% of respondents
claimed they did not use social networks as sources of
information.
• Facebook and Instagram users are equally redistributed
all over Ukraine. Only in the eastern regions their
audience is somewhat smaller.
• Facebook is also popular among all ages with exception
of respondents who are 60 years and older.
• Majority of respondents who use Russian social media
live in the southern and eastern regions.
• Telegram channels are used regularly in the western and
eastern regions. Typical user of Telegram channels is a
man/women of Generation Z who lives in the big city.

9. What do people watch?
News about events in Ukraine and the world 67,6
Movies/animated pictures/ non-fiction or documentaries 51,7
Stand up & Comedy shows (e.g.: «Make Comic Laugh», «Diesel Show», «Evening Quartal»), Internet-memes 38,8
TV Series 31,5
Political talk shows (e.g.: «Right to Power», «Svoboda Slova» etc.) 23,4
Thematic content about my hobbies (culinary, gardening, engineering and equipment etc) 19,9
Reality shows (e.g. «Husband home alone», «Bachelor», «Auditor», «Chef», «Battle of psychic mediums» etc) 18,9
Talent shows and musical shows («Ukraine Talent Show», «Eurovision») 17,8
Sports (articles, TV shows, live broadcasting) 17,2
News, interviews, and expert and political debates about the important national issues 16,6
News about events in the native community 16,0
Education and science fiction content (articles, shows etc.) 14,7
Children TV shows / Internet portal 2,7
Other 0,9
Hard to say / Refusal 4,7

10. Criteria of media
choice
• Key criteria of media choice are: interesting content (58%),
easy and comprehensible way of presentation of information
(32%), fast reaction to the urgent events and timely coverage
(31%), neutral and objective work, presentation of the
different viewpoints (31%).
• Respondents from the southern (32%) and eastern (42%)
regions more often mentioned neutrality and objectivity as
important factors of choice than respondents from other
regions.
• Also, respondents from the southern (13%) and eastern
(19%) regions are more concerned about «media reputation»
than in other regions.
• It is worth mentioning that voters of the “Opposition
Platform” are more interested in neutrality and objectivity
(42%) and “media reputation” (16%).
• Patriotic loyalty of the media is important factor of choice for
24% of the people who vote for “European solidarity”.

11. Popular
Demand for
information

13. Media Literacy

14. How is it important for you to know who owns media
you used to watch/read/listen regularly?, %
Very Important 9,2
Rather important
29,0
Rather unimportant 21,9
Completely
unimportant
32,1
Do not know 7,9
• Majority of Ukrainians do not care about
media owners. The biggest share of such
respondents live in the central regions (60%).
• The most indifferent are generation Z
respondents (58%) and respondents aged 60
and older (57%).
• Educationa level also matters: respondents
with the higher education are the most serious
about issue of media ownership (43%).
• The most indifferent are people who watch
STB (59%), Ukraina and Inter (both 57%), 1+1
(56%), the most attentive watch Priamyi
channel (58%).

18. Perception of Russian
propaganda
messages

19. • DIF and DM August 2020 poll revealed that in the last 18
months (since February 2019) more Ukrainians started to
identify Russia as a state that began war in Donbas. 60% of
respondents agreed with such statement. 20% still believe that
the war was started by the Ukrainian government and
Ukrainian oligarchs. And 18% either refused to answer or
avoided to make their choice.
• There are distinctive regional preferences in the respondents’
answers. While 92% of respondents from the western regions
and 70% from the central regions blame Russia for the
beginning of the war, there are only 36% of the same minded
people in the southern regions and 29% in the eastern regions
of Ukraine.
• And vice versa. 44% of people in the east of Ukraine and 25%
in the south think that Ukrainian government is responsible for
the war. Only 16%in the center and 2% in the west have the
same opinion. It must be noted that the biggest share of the
people (39%) who refused to answer or remained undecided
live in the southern regions.

20. • In general, 54% of respondents think it was the Revolution of
Dignity, an uprising against authoritarian rule, 31% believe
that it was illegal coupe d’état, seizure of power by a group of
armed people and 15% have no opinion on the matter (most
of them in the southern regions 27%).
• Maidan is interpreted as Revolution of Dignity by 87% in the
western regions, 64% in the central regions, 23% in the
southern and eastern regions. At the same time Maidan is
perceived as coupe d’état by 56% in the East, 50% in the
South, 23% in the Center and 6% in the West.
• The age is a factor that influences choice of the certain
interpretation. We can see that the younger generations (Z
and Y) are choosing “Revolution of Dignity”, while senior
respondents (60 years and older) believe in “illegal seizure of
power by the armed men”.

21. • The poll reveals very significant impact of the pro-
Russian propaganda message about “external
control” over Ukraine. When respondents were
asked about their opinion about cooperation
between Ukraine and the International Monetary
Fund, 45% of them agreed with the statement that
such cooperation resulted in external control over
Ukraine, while 38% believe that it is necessary for
economic assistance to Ukraine. 17% do not have
opinion on the matter or refused to answer.
• In the regional dimension favorable perception of
IMF is found only in the western regions: 58%
against 26% who support message about external
control; in the central regions opinion is divided
evenly: 43% favor cooperation with IMF and 40%
condemn it; in the eastern regions 61% believe
that IMF exercise external control over Ukraine
against 20% who think such cooperation is
necessary; in the southern regions IMF is
condemned by 62% and vindicated by 21%
• It is also worth mentioning that more respondents
from the generation Z supports cooperation with
the IMF than oppose it (44% vs 32%). While senior
respondents (60 years and older) have very
different attitude (52% against IMF and 35% are for
it).

22. We tested popular attitude toward policy of
banning certain Russian show-biz celebrities
(singers, artists, actors, comics etc.) and
Russian movies from coming to Ukraine and
Ukrainian market.
We can see that since 2018 more people
have radically changed their minds.
Opponents of the ban lost 12%, while
proponents gained 9% and number of
undecided gained 3%. These changes
happened in all regions of Ukraine.
It is worth mentioning that in the last 18
months more people began to support such
policy (36%), although relative majority of
respondents still consider it to be a mistake
and violation of their rights (43%). Every
fifth respondent decided not to answer or
has no opinion on the matter.

23. • Nationwide opinion poll was conducted by DIF and sociology service of the
Razumkov Center on request of Detector media. The poll was conducted on
between 14 and 19 of August, 2020 in all regions of Ukraine except the
occupied territories of Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk regions. 2022
respondents were polled by the face to face interview at their places of
residence. Polling sample is representative of the adult population of
Ukraine. Theoretical margin of error is less than 2.3%
• In this survey the microregion composition is as follows: West (Lviv,
Transcarpathia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Chernivtsi, Khmelnytskyi, Volyn
and Rivne regions), Center (Zhytomyr, Kyiv region, city of Kyiv, Chernihiv,
Sumy, Poltava, Cherkasy, Kropyvnytskyi, Vinnytsia regions), South (Odesa,
Mykolaiv, Kherson regions), East (Zaporizhia, Dnipro, Kharkiv, government-
controlled territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions).
• For comparison we use data of the two polls conducted by the Kyiv
International Institute of Sociology on request of Detector Media in
February 2018 and February 2019. KIIS includes Zaporizhia and Dnipro
regions in the southern microregion.