Wortley to head development of DStv-i

Dstv-i is being developed in conjunction with TNS in London and TNS Research Surveys in Johannesburg and differs from conventional TV audience measurement research in that viewing behaviour is stored and retrieved directly from the DStv decoder.

Wortley is highly regarded in the industry for her leading advertising and marketing role in the industry since the early 90's as media director of J Walter Thompson (JWT) before establishing Mindshare - a partnership between JWT and Ogilvy & Mather - where she served as joint MD.

During her tenure with JWT, Brenda served on JWT's European Media Council and twice received the JWT Global Media Excellence Award. She has also consulted to top agencies and government departments as an independent media specialist during the past five years.

Peter McKenzie, MD of OATS, comments that Wortley brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the project and is uniquely placed to ensure that DStv-i provides the necessary research and planning tools to both Oracle and media-buyers alike.

The six-year investment in the DStv-i project ushers in a new generation of television audience research and follows the introduction of similar return-path panels in the UK and New Zealand. Dstv-i will also complement the existing SAARF TAMS peoplemeter panel.

The ever-increasing choice of TV platforms and channels has resulted in audience fragmentation becoming an on-going challenge. The development of these return-path panels and the ability to use the decoder as a storage device, translates into vastly increased sample sizes, in turn providing much more robust data.