Satellite TV audiences under the microscope

So now, for the first time, the market can access objective data on which satellite channels are the most popular. Audience data is recorded minute-by-minute on a 24hour/7day basis, but because audience sizes are much smaller than those of terrestrial stations, the data are grouped up in various ways. For example, the chart shown here is the ‘top’ grouping - showing what proportion of the potential audience (adults with satellite TV in their home) watches each channel at least once a week. Satellite versions of ‘terrestrial’ channels are omitted from the chart (although TAMS shows that satellite households are more likely to watch such channels via satellite than via the conventional transmission).

TAMS research contractor ACNielsen has been collecting satellite TV data experimentally for over six months. They have noted that audience sizes (measured over a week) are rather stable for most satellite channels. "Big Brother" and now "Idols" are exceptions to the rule, with steep growth curves. Though stable, penetration (or ‘reach’) varies widely between channels from around 70% for Movie Magic to about 7% for Summit TV. Such variation is expected, given that satellite TV is designed, in part, to accommodate ‘niche’ channels. Broadly, movies, sport and documentary channels (like Discovery and Reality) garner the biggest audiences. Music channels are found in the middle ground, while news programmes (Sky, CNN, Summit) attract the lowest viewership. Overall, child viewing (not included in the chart) marches in step - but just a pace or two behind - the adult figures. Two major exceptions are of course Cartoon TV and KTV, where penetration is two or three times the adult level.

Background

Two years ago, SAARF TAMS™ (Television Audience Measurement Survey) was under attack from various media practitioners for being subject to unacceptably large errors. Their case was founded partly on misunderstandings, partly it was justified. SAARF, together with ACNielsen (research contractors for the TAMS panel) acknowledged the deficiencies and corrected the misunderstandings, but most importantly announced a major upgrade of the entire survey. The panel size was to be increased and the aging technology replaced with state-of-the-art equipment and software.

That process is now all but finished, the critics mostly silent, and the data flowing in a steady, reliable and increasingly useful stream. TAMS has come a long way.

Some believe the Achilles heel of TAMS is its reliance on the cooperation of human beings. Each member of the ‘panel household’ has to press his or her designated button (on a small keypad, rather like a normal TV remote control) to record their arrival in front of the TV and then press it again when they leave the room. Surely people won’t keep that up for very long, say the doubters - surely they get careless once the novelty wears off? As a result, SAARF arranges from time to time for an independent ‘coincidental’ audit of randomly selected panel households, to see whether they are, in fact, viewing (or not viewing) when their buttons say so. Such a check was recently carried out and the results are reassuring. Nobody expected the results to reveal absolute perfection (panel members are human, after all!) but in spite of a substantial and rapid increase in the size of the panel over the last eighteen months, the results were better than they have been before.

Thanks to the unblinking vigilance of SAARF’s meters, installed in homes around the country, the ups and downs of TV channels and individual programmes are now a matter of record - essential lowdown for media owners and advertisers on who is watching what, and when, and for how long.

Brian Culross is communications manager at ACNielsen.