GfK Wins Major European Contracts

GfK has this week won two multi-year contracts in Belgium and Austria that will strengthen the group's leading position in media research in Europe.

Firstly, GfK is to carry out TV audience research in Belgium for the next seven years from 2002 to 2008 inclusive in conjunction with Audimétrie, a subsidiary of the Intomart GfK Group . The total contract volume amounts to Euro 17 million. Audimétrie, which has been commissioned by CIM (the Joint Industry Committee for media research in Belgium) for the last five years to measure TV ratings in Belgium, will supply the 1,500-strong panel with new metering equipment in 2003. This will measure the reception of both analogue and digital broadcast.

This development maintains GfK's position as the leading organisation in the field of continuous TV audience research by means of electronic measuring equipment, which, in addition to Belgium, it carries out in Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. GfK has also been commissioned by TV stations to carry out TV audience research in Bulgaria, Croatia, Russia, Slovakia, Turkey and the Ukraine.

Secondly, GfK has won a small but strategically important contract from Österreichischer Rundfunk (Austrian radio) and the marketing companies for private broadcasters RMS and RMC, under which GfK will carry out continuous radio audience research from 2002 to 2004. The volume of this contract totals Euro 1.5 million. The survey, known as Radiotest, has been carried out regularly by FESSEL-GfK, GfK's Austrian subsidiary, since 1993.

GfK carries out radio research in Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the Ukraine. Since the beginning of 2001, GfK has been using a measuring device in the form of a wristwatch for the Swiss panel. The technology behind the device, which is the first in the world to record radio listening electronically, has also been sold in other European countries.

All articles 2006-22 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.