TV ratings contract up for tender

By DITA DE BONI

The multimillion-dollar contract to measure television audiences is being put up for tender for the first time in over 30 years.

ACNielsen, and forerunner AGB McNair, which it acquired in 1994, have been measuring Kiwi viewing habits virtually since television's inception in the 1960s.

In July, ACNielsen said it had developed a system allowing 30 subscribers of pay television service Sky TV to join the 440-strong home panel of Peoplemeters administered for the Television Broadcasters' Council.

But the council, which represents the country's free-to-air broadcasters, said the rapidly growing number of channels that would be offered in a digital television world required the most up-to-date audience monitoring.

"The council [has] decided that the best way to ensure the ongoing quality and integrity of television audience research was to invite a small number of firms specialising in television audience research to tender for the contract," said executive director Bruce Wallace.

The auditor of the Peoplemeter service, Dr Peter Danaher, of the University of Auckland, will manage the tender.

ACNielsen managing director David O'Neill said the decision had been indicated for some time.

The company will measure television ratings until next December, under its agreement with the council.

Mr O'Neill said ACNielsen owned the technology it had developed to measure the Sky TV set-top boxes, "but any organisation that wanted to tender for the contract would need to be able to measure Sky, so I would think it would continue to happen."

He said the TV ratings contract was important to ACNielsen's New Zealand operation.

The company was looking forward to the tendering process but took its competition "very seriously."

Mr Wallace would not name other research companies that might vie with ACNielsen for the ratings contract.

ACNielsen has come under fierce competitive pressure in the Asia-Pacific region for ratings contracts over the past two years. It was challenged for the free-to-air contract in the Australian market by global player Taylor Nelson Sofres, as well as AGB Italia, which eventually won the contract.

Taylor Nelson spokesman Martin James said from Sydney yesterday that he could not comment on the possibility of pitching for the New Zealand contract but the company was always looking for new business.

Competition in most Asia-Pacific markets was "one-on-one" with ACNielsen, he said.

ACNielsen Australia continues to hold the pay television measurement contract and regional free-to-air contracts in that market.