TAMS overnight ratings launched daily

Following the recommendations of the SAARF Tender Committee, the much-anticipated overnight TV ratings will soon become a reality in South Africa. "We will convert to the new reporting frequency as soon as all involved parties are ready for the change," says SAARF CEO, Dr Paul Haupt, but he warns that the move will take time to implement.

"Shifting over to overnight ratings will have a major impact on both advertising agencies and television media owners, affecting how television airtime is bought and sold," he explains. "Owners will need to develop the ability to make daily adjustments to rates and bookings, which will have cost implications both in terms of staff and systems."

The TAMS panel

The Tender Committee also made a number of recommendations concerning the TAMS panel, one of which was that SAARF investigate the possibility of increasing the size of the panel. Currently, there are 1356 reporting households feeding data to TAMS.
The panel will also be enhanced by the inclusion of rural households. Due to the improved incidence of electrification in rural areas, the TAMS panel can now be extended into these households, making the panel fully representative of the television universe.

The panel will also be able to better keep pace with population changes and the development of new residential areas, once forced rotation is introduced. "The current panel is biased towards older people," reports Haupt. "With forced rotation, households that have been on the panel too long would be rotated off the panel and be replaced with suitable new households. Forced rotation would also occur in those households which had been on the panel for longer than a designated time." SAARF is currently negotiating with NMR to implement this.

The TAMS meters

The committee also recommended that the current TV meters be retained, but that new technology should be brought in to measure television consumption in sophisticated homes which have more than one TV, or DStv. Such households are often not happy with the current hardwired meters, which require that 'slave' meters be physically wired in to the 'master' meter, requiring wiring to be run through the house. New technology allows for wireless links.

The TAMS contract

The SAARF Board has approved that a new company, AGBNMR, which has recently been formed by the two TAMS giants - AGB and Nielsen Media Research (NMR) - be contracted to do the TAMS research for the next six years. AGBNMR is a dedicated TAMS supplier and operates in numerous countries worldwide. It was felt that the new company will bring new expertise and technology to improve and modernize the existing TAMS panel.

For more detail, go to www.saarf.co.za.