Commercial television broadcasts are used by 91.8 percent of people in Japan as a news source, a survey by the Japan Press Research Institute, a public interest organization, has found.

NHK programs were cited as a news source by 79.8 percent of the respondents, followed by newspapers at 70.1 percent and the internet at 66.5 percent.

The average amount of time respondents spend watching or reading news per day came to 36.2 minutes.

The survey, conducted between August and September, covered 5,000 people age 18 or over across the country. Of that total, 62.7 percent gave valid responses.

The internet topped the list of news sources among respondents up to 49 years of age, while TV programs by private broadcasters dominated among respondents in their 50s.

Regarding the reliability of information, NHK earned 70.8 of 100 points, followed by newspapers at 69.6 points, commercial TV at 62.9 points and the internet at 49.4 points.

The proportion of people who said they are interested in the issue of constitutional amendments stood at 64.1 percent, the lowest level since the institute started asking the question in fiscal 2013. The rate has been on the decline since peaking at 74.9 percent in fiscal 2015. The share of those uninterested in the issue came to a record high of 35.5 percent.

“People may have become too accustomed to hearing about issues related to constitutional revisions because Japanese media have been frequently reporting about them in the past few years,” an official of the institute said.