Taylor Nelson Sofres is to acquire a 46% shareholding in Central Viewer Survey & Consulting Centre (CVSC), a leading provider of market information in China. This move extends the collaboration between the two businesses. For the past four years, they have been operating a joint venture, CVSC-Sofres-Media (CSM), which is the leading television audience measurement service in China. Under the existing joint venture, CVSC-Sofres-Media (CSM) City panels provide overnight television audience measurement ratings from 300 households in each of Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai. A further four cities are to be added by the end of 2001. The national PeopleMeter television audience measurement panel reports on approximately 2,000 Chinese households on a weekly basis providing, for the first time, truly national insights into the viewing patterns and preferences of one-fifth of the world ’s population. CSM also continues to operate its weekly diary services covering 63 cities and nine provinces. The group operates household consumer panels in Korea, Taiwan and Thailand and is launching services in Malaysia, the Philippines and Hong Kong, as well as operating in collaboration with CVSC in China. CVSC employs over 250 full time staff and turnover in year ended 31 December 1999 reached RMB110.2m (£13.8,including CSM). Net assets were RMB44.3m (£5.5m), as shown in a valuation report dated 29 August 2000. Completion is dependent upon formal approval by the Chinese authorities, which is expected within the next few months. According to Tony Cowling, TNS Executive Chairman "This move increases our already well established presence in the fast growing Chinese research market. CVSC has national coverage and an excellent reputation, making it the ideal partner for developing further our activities in this exciting market. We know the company well through CSM, which has been a very successful joint venture and this is a significant step in the development of our business in Asia. It comes at a time when we are extending our consumer panel activities into three more territories and will allow us to produce pan-Asian consumer panel data for our multi-national clients."