TAMS reflects growth in market
The TAMS universe is made up of all households, both rural and urban, with mains electricity and at least one working TV set. It measures all platforms both analogue and digital and both terrestrial and satellite. Personal viewing data is captured by its meter for all household members aged four and older and includes all guests in the home. Domestic workers are also included in the universe but are treated as separate households.
An establishment survey is the only way to correctly reflect the relative sizes of all the different TV platforms at a given moment in time and to measure TV accurately, SAARF also needs to know amongst other things, how many TVs, and M-Net and DStv decoders, etc. people have, which is sourced from AMPS.
Updating the universe regularly ensures that the data remains up-to-date with changes happening in the TV arena, brought about by the constant addition of new households to the TV-viewing population and the inexorable move to Pay TV.
This year, in addition to the usual universe update, the adult universe has been changed from 16+ years to 15+ years, adding just over 2% to the adult TV universe. The following Tables show the current adult (16+ years) TAMS universe, the adult (15+ years) universe that will be implemented in August 2010, and the differences between these two.
