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Progress for UAE Audience Project
In the UAE, the Ministerial Council for Services has passed a draft law advancing the TV Audience Measurement Project which will bring people meter technology to the country.
The project was set in motion in January 2009 by the National Media Council (NMC) and the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), with a decision to introduce some form of set-top box-based measurement to provide advertisers and broadcasters with accurate information for planning purposes.
In August, consultants Capgemini were commissioned to undertake an initial phase of work by benchmarking and examining possible systems: they concluded that the country's 'diverse population and cluttered media landscape' required a unique system, perhaps similar to that in Singapore, according to www.thenational.ae . In the latter island state, boxes are placed in a high proportion of homes - about 750 for a population of 4.5 million, and the state-owned MediaCorp contracts its audience measurement to TNS and then sells the data to other stakeholders.
NMC Director General Ibrahim al Abed said action on the project was imminent, and that stakeholders have already committed to paying around 70-80% of the cost.
The TRA is online at www.tra.gov.ae and the NMC at www.nmcuae.ae (site not available at time of going to press).
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