I am prompted to write to you regarding the article you published on March 27, entitled ‘ARF issues media measurement warning’, with the subhead ‘People meters won’t measure up in digital TV environment.’
The article is misleading in its tone and in much of its content.
Taylor Nelson Sofres is one of the world’s leading television audience measurement companies. We operate people meter systems in 18 different countries around the world and are the suppliers of the Picture Matching technology which BBM uses in Canada.
BBM’s system has been widely endorsed by users from all sides of the industry, ranging from television broadcasters to agencies and advertisers. In several countries, including Canada and the U.K., we are already successfully using Picture Matching to provide accurate measurement of digital television delivered by satellite, terrestrial broadcasting and cable. Indeed, one of the reasons for developing Picture Matching was specifically to deal with digital.
Where you are correct is in saying that older systems such as the tuner probe technology used by BBM’s competitor cannot deal with digital television.
Among the facilities which digital television will offer will be the ability for the viewer to customize the picture which he watches; similarly, the interactive services provided by digital television will afford a wide variety of potentially different forms of on-screen presentation. These facilities are just starting to arrive and no one can predict with any certainty what impact they will have.
Meanwhile, for now and the immediate future, the overwhelming majority of viewing is to conventional forms of television delivered as either analogue or digital signals. Our clients continue to demand the use of people meters to provide accurate measurement of viewing to those services.
As a supplier of television audience measurement, we are concerned to know and understand what information needs we will have to meet as customized digital and interactive television develops. I therefore welcome the NATAM initiative to establish some guidelines for those requirements. I would urge them to include representatives of agencies and advertisers in their group to ensure that it is fully representative of the needs of all users.
If they can do that, then I am entirely confident that we can develop the technology to meet those needs; no doubt we shall have to employ a range of techniques to do so. I am equally confident that within that environment, the tried and tested technologies of people meters and Picture Matching will continue to play an important role.
Michael A. Kirkham
Director
Taylor Nelson Sofres
London, England
