Power to the peoplemeter

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Karim Sarkis, Executive director, ADMC.

A number of peoplemeter measurement systems appear to be in development simultaneously, yet so far the region's broadcasters have seen little benefit. Digital Broadcast investigates...

Peoplemeter projects have long been mooted across the Middle East however, so far their reach is limited to a 600 unit deployment in Lebanon. Given the vast difference in viewing habits across the MENA region, a single sample pool in Lebanon cannot offer any useful data beyond the Levant itself.

At the end of 2008, Ipsos revealed to Digital Broadcast that it was working on a proposed 1600 household peoplemeter project in Saudi Arabia. More recently, the UAE National Media Council (NMC) and the country's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) revealed that they had received eight bids to operate as the technology partner for their own proposed peoplemeter.

The Abu Dhabi Media Company (ADMC) has also announced that it is working to develop a peoplemeter project to serve the UAE.

Karim Sarkis, executive director of ADMC says he would like to see the NMC involved in the ADMC initiative also.

"We are at the stage where we have been through the proposals and we are ready to select a technology partner and have an idea how we are going to proceed with it," says Sarkis.

"We are going to create something that will be used by everyone, it will not be a proprietary tool or in-house business initiative on the part of ADMC," he added.

"At the moment we need to sign a contract with the technology partner, and we have to agree to the level of involvement the NMC will have in the project. Ideally we would like the NMC to oversee the project as a regulatory force," explains Sarkis.

The project - which will cost US $2.5-3 million - will be paid for up front by ADMC, says Sarkis.

"What ADMC is doing is facilitating the project, knowing, hoping, and believing that once clients, broadcasters and agencies see the data that they will believe in the project and come on board.

The initial outlay for the peoplemeter hardware installed in each sample household and the costs associated with compiling and analysing the data into a useful form can sometimes prove a stumbling block. The proposed split for Project Illumination (PI) peoplemeter in KSA, according to MBC's COO Sam Barnett, is 40 percent each from advertisers and broadcasters with ad agencies paying the final 20 percent.

"We will be looking to form a steering committee, which will consist of the main ingredients of the industry's key broadcasters and a client or agency representative. There is no need for a huge delegation. Those representatives will provide quite a broad range of opinions," claims Sarkis.

The issue of how to satisfy the various stakeholders of a peoplemeter initiative seems to lie at the heart of the issue.

"This is not an ADMC project, essentially, but we have announced it and decided to go ahead with it as we think - based on experience in Saudi Arabia (PI) - there will be a lot of delays. We have to reach a consensus and try to get everybody to agree on all the details. Even when people agree, there is then the issue of who is going to pay for what," says Sarkis.

The selected technology partner for PI is Ipsos AGB - a joint venture between Ipsos and Nielsen AGB - which already has a fully functioning initiative in place in Lebanon. The steering body in that case has now made little progress since late-2007 with Ipsos AGB having heard nothing further about the Saudi project's schedule.

Ipsos, along with several of its competitors, submitted bids last month for the joint TRA and NMC UAE-based project, according to Elie Aoun, COO Ipsos MENA.

"Given the current economic climate, accurate information is of increasing value and the NMC and TRA have decided that the time is right for a new layer of TV audience measurement," explained an NMC spokesman speaking at the launch of the project.

In summary, there are presently two peoplemeter projects in development in the UAE. Both have approached the same technology partners, both seek the involvement of the UAE National Media Council and both are looking to include entities from across the entire advertising cycle.

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