New Coalition to Advise EU on Audience Measurement

Research associations ESOMAR, AGOF and EFAMRO have combined with three broadcasting and publishing associations to form a new Coalition for Audience Measurement, supporting the EU as it considers reform of it ePrivacy Directive.

The buyer-side partners are EBU (The European Broadcasting Union), European publisher org News Media Europe and worldwide publisher association WAN-IFRA. AGOF is the German association for online audience research, while EFAMRO represents more than 1,000 European research businesses in 14 countries. The Coalition will provide information on the specifics of audience measurement and the added value it brings to society, and has already issued its first joint position statement. Among its goals are to ensure lawmakers 'maintain a level playing field between all providers of audience measurement by removing artificial distinctions between so-called first-party and third-party providers', and to use language reflecting the diversity of service providers using audience measurement 'to inform strategic decisions and improve service delivery to EU citizens'.

ESOMAR Director General Finn Raben comments: 'When we looked at the first position statements and listened to some of the leading individuals involved in the conversation, we were increasingly concerned that there didn't seem to be a great deal of awareness about what audience measurement is, how it operates, the safeguards put in place... and indeed the importance it has in supporting the entire media sector'. EBU Head of European Affairs Nicola Frank adds: 'Public Service Media organizations strive to gather data in the most transparent, secure and accountable manner in order to provide the most relevant experience as well as offer the possibility to discover new content. This is why we need a fully-functional data protection framework at EU level which caters for strong end-user privacy and technological feasibility'.

Web sites of the six are www.esomar.org , www.agof.de , www.ebu.ch/about/european-affairs , www.efamro.com , www.newsmediaeurope.eu and www.wan-ifra.org .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.