BBM Bureau of Measurement may be the first into the Canadian marketplace with a meter-based Internet and digital media audience-measurement system, but Nielsen Media Research – BBM’s nemesis in the broadcast measurement arena – says it will be joining the fray next year.

Media Metrix Canada, a joint venture between BBM division Comquest Research and New York-based Media Metrix, announced last month that it would begin offering its services to Canadian clients this fall.

Nielsen Media Research, which offers an Internet audience measurement service in the U.S. called NetRatings, has not yet announced a release date for Canada, but Paul Robinson, a spokesperson for Nielsen Media Research Canada, says an announcement will soon be forthcoming.

Meanwhile, news of third-party measurement of Internet use is being warmly welcomed by members of the advertising community.

Bob Reaume, vice-president of media research for the Association of Canadian Advertisers, says increased accountability will provide a comfort factor that will lure previously reluctant advertisers to the medium.

‘I think it’s the natural evolution,’ Reaume says. ‘It will enhance the planning and buying of the medium and make it easier for clients and agencies to do both. And, it will encourage ad revenue growth.’

Even without the added incentive of audience measurement, Internet ad revenue in Canada has been doubling in growth year to year. According to the Internet Advertising Bureau of Canada, an estimated $55 million is expected to be spent on Internet advertising in Canada this year, with $109 million projected for next year. IABC predicts the Internet will surpass radio as an ad medium by 2002.

Jeff Osborne, Comquest CEO, says Media Metrix will measure reach, frequency, audience size, and time spent on the Internet, and then link that information to detailed demographic profiles of the panel members – in much the same way as is currently done with television.

Unlike with television, however, panel members need not have measurement meters installed in their homes. They simply need to download customized software onto their computers, which Osborne says will facilitate a quick national rollout.

He says he expects subscribers to the system will include traditional advertisers and agencies, Web publishers, new media consultants, and companies who market and sell their products and services over the Web.

‘What Media Metrix is doing,’ Osborne says, ‘is setting up a network in the major industrialized countries of the world. The theory is that many of the customers for Media Metrix products are multinationals who want a consistent and common currency in the countries in which they do business.’

The first stage of the Media Metrix rollout will include a household panel of about 2,000 Internet users, with a business usage panel to follow next year.

Usage information will be continually updated, says Osborne, so subscribers will be able to sign on whenever they need up-to-the-minute information.