Nielsen (Thailand)'s absence poses dilemma to TV industry

Accounting for 65 per cent of the Bt132-billion media industry, TV still remains the biggest window for major brands and corporations to communicate and engage with a nationwide audience. 

Over the past two decades, this market was dominated by media survey firm Nielsen (Thailand) through a currency from its TV audience measurement. 

This year, Nielsen is being challenged by the Media Research Bureau of the Media Agency Association of Thailand (MAAT)’s selection of a new national TV audience rating meter.

Also, the MAAT appears to face a huge challenge in transforming the old currency into the new one, but MAAT chairman Wannee Ruttanaphon insists that the industry has accurate data that all stakeholders can use at a reasonably controlled cost.

What are the benefits of the new currency? 

Established as a non-profit organisation, the Media Research Bureau suggested that all data and research would be owned by the industry and could be shared partly with educational institutions to lift their standards. 

The MRB’s members would be able to steer the direction of the research and the depth they wanted while they would get full and equal access to the information. 

The MRB is focusing on multi-platform audience measurement to help the industry gain a greater understanding of the rapid change in the media ecosystem, mainly driven by advanced wireless broadband Internet infrastructure. 

“Nielsen does not have such audience measurement?” 

In an interview, Nielsen (Thailand) explained that it could add more tools to measure the data across various platforms but the industry should be united to co-invest with the company for the additional measurement. 

Basically, Nielsen’s TV audience measurement (TAM) is a commercial service. The data are selected by the industry to be the common currency in the country. 

At this point, it is quite clear that the MRB’s new currency will be served to its members and the public while Nielsen’s TAM is commercially available for its clients. 

With the industry’s consensus, the RMB was formed by free, cable and satellite TV broadcasters, media agencies, TV producers and the MAAT. 

“The members have agreed to build a new currency by sharing costs equally,” he said.

A figure for the investment needed for the new infrastructure that will generate the new currency would have to wait on the price proposed by the winner that will be named as early as June. 

After that, the establishment survey, software installation and trial run would be completed within a year. 

Based on a preliminary estimate by Daranee Charoen-Rajapark, managing director of GfK Marketwise, for the 22 million households in the country, the cost of setting up hardware, software and staff for the first year of operation would be about Bt87 million-Bt130 million.

Germany-based GfK Group, which won two bids for TV ratings in Brazil and Saudi Arabia, is one of the three companies that applied in Thailand. The others were Japanese Video Research International and British Kantar Media. 

Despite not running in the ratings race, Nielsen’s TAM remains an important currency for the Thai TV broadcasting industry with its existing infrastructure and subscribers.

Once the MRB appoints its research agency for multiplatform audience measurement, the critical point will be that the industry will have to be united to support the new currency because Thailand is fit only for a single common currency.