BEIRUT -- People meters are in the plans for the United Arab Emirates, according to two government bodies that have sponsored the project.
The National Media Council (NMC) and Telecoms Regulatory Authority (TRA) are taking proposals from commercial companies to manage the TV Audience Measurement System, which will randomly select and equip TV sets across the UAE's 740,000 TV households with people meters.
An NMC spokesman said the need for accurate information is particularly pressing, "given the current economic climate," while the state news agency WAM reported that the system will increase TV ad spending while helping the government send out public messages "more effectively."
If implemented, the project will produce the first television audience measurement system in the region. But at a regional level, state-backed systems will not provide the insight into viewership habits that advertisers yearn for in such a cluttered market -- with more than 500 pan-Arab channels beaming into 57 million households in the Middle East and North Africa.
A regional rating system would have to account for Saudi Arabia, the key TV ad market by virtue of its size (4 million TV households) and purchasing power. Saudi-owned satcaster MBC led 2007 gross TV ad spending in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries at 33%, according to an Informa Telecoms & Media report.
MBC Group supports the UAE project as a "timely initiative, provided it leads to accurate and credible TV audience measurement data that is endorsed by the region's leading advertisers," says Mazen Hayek, MBC's group director of marketing, PR and commercial.
"There are still question marks around the project financing and the role that advertisers, media and media buying units need to play to make this happen," Hayek tells
Variety.
MBC is one of five broadcasters on the board of an independent people-meter project started in 2006 that has yet to bear fruit. Project Illumination was launched by a tripartite group of broadcasters, ad agencies and advertisers, with a four-year plan set to cost $5 million -- split 40-40 between TV stations and advertisers, with ad agencies paying the remaining 20%. LBC, Rotana, Saudi TV and Dubai Media Incorporated -- the government body that owns Dubai TV -- are also on the board.
Regional analysts and advertisers have long argued that the lack of an independent rating system depresses average primetime ad rates. TV advertising runs at about $5 per capita in MENA, as compared to $100 in Western Europe, with its growth potential unable to keep pace in recent years with the growing number of available channels.
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