▼
Broadcasters and advertisers are agreed that the lack of a reliable
audience measurement system has held back spending throughout the
MENA region. All that is changing now: PeopleMeters are being installed
in TV owning households. We talked to General Manager Christopher
O'Hearn of tview which is spearheading the project in the UAE
his is about the fifth
attempt to bring
electronic ratings to
this region. In many
ways the Arab
regional market is
quite unique. There
arenʹt many other markets where
you have 400m people all speaking
a common language and all able to
see the same channels. Middle East
broadcasting has grown up as free‐
to‐air satellite broadcast.
Programme schedules and the
advertising campaigns which fund
the FTA channels are planned on a
pan‐Arab basis or at least targeting
the key markets – for example
Saudi Arabia or Egypt. Our
thinking at tview is that we donʹt
have it within our immediate
power to bring in a pan‐Arab
T
audience measurement system but
we have got to start somewhere.
The UAE with its 6‐7m
population is a good pilot ‐ itʹs a
market that broadcasters and
advertisers look at but itʹs not the
most important market. So if we
can successfully introduce it here
then we hope that other people
across the region will follow suit.
Who is behind it?
The original sponsor is the Federal
Cabinet of the UAE and the
custodian at the official level is the
National Media Council, the local
media regulator. The companies
that are involved on a more hands‐
on basis are a group of UAE media
owners ‐ Abu Dhabi Media, Sharjah
Media, the main telcos Etisalat and
DU, and also Saudi channel Rotana
PEOPLEMETERS
INUAE
THE CHANNEL
|
ISSUE 2 2013
|
37
which has a presence here. Most of
the regional broadcasters, and
particularly those from the Gulf,
are based in the UAE and we hope
other people will come in as we
expand. We want it to be a genuine
cross‐section of industry.
Are people embracing the concept?
There is no transparency around
the current system – there is very
little faith in the ratings such as
they are at the moment. In bringing
in the new system, we encounter
challenges on different levels.
The political challenges make it
difficult to get a genuine cross‐
section together, to get the trust of
the people who arenʹt inside the
tents and to get them to come in.
There are technical issues as well.
Our partner is Kantar Media –
