Kantar Media Wins Emirates TV Contract

In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a group of industry bodies have given Kantar Media a five-year contract to develop and implement the country's first PeopleMeter television audience measurement service.

The other parties to the Television Audience Measurement (TAM) deal are the National Media Council (NMC), Abu Dhabi Media Company, Dubai Incorporated, Sharjah Media Corporation and Etisalat. Kantar's client will be the newly launched Emirates Media Measurement Company.

Television audience data will be collected from a representative panel of 800 'People Metered' households spread across all seven key Emirates including Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Rak and Fujairah.

Kantar will use its latest PeopleMeter, the 5000 series, to record minute-by-minute data on TV viewing habits; and will implement its analysis software for the TV industry, InfoSys+.

The bodies have taken their time weighing up the best options. The project was set in motion in January 2009, and in August of that year consultants Capgemini undertook an exploratory phase examining possible systems, concluding that the country's 'diverse population and cluttered media landscape' required a unique system. In March this year, the country's Ministerial Council for Services passed a draft law to allow the process to move forward.

In a statement the National Media Council, the UAE's official media regulatory authority, said the project 'represents a milestone for the media industry in the UAE'. It added: 'Providing audience measurement geared to meeting the highest quality standards will enable the UAE TV Industry to make ... efficient decisions concerning UAE television programming - its content, its carriage, and its promotion.'

Keld Nielsen, Global Business Development Director at Kantar Media, said the tendering process overseen by the country's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority was 'fiercely competitive' and pronounced his company 'delighted' with the win. Kantar Media has installed more than 80,000 People Meters attached to television sets in homes around the world since it pioneered the technology nearly 30 years ago.

Mansoor Khan, Kantar Media's Director, International Developments said the company had 'demonstrated a commitment to push back the boundaries of audience measurement' and stressed: 'The measurement systems adopted must be able to cope with the myriad ways in which television can be consumed in the digital era, but will also need to have the flexibility to cope with future developments.'

Web sites are at www.tra.gov.ae , www.nmcuae.ae and www.kantarmedia-audiences.com .