Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja
The federal government has named
the representatives of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON), Signal Distributors and Advertisers’ Association of Nigeria (ADVAN), among others task team of industry experts to work out the modality for setting up a scientific Audience Measurement System.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, said the composition was part of measures to boost radio and television advertising revenue in the country.
He announced the setting up of the team in Enugu yesterday at the launch of the Digital Switch Over (DSO) in television in the state.
Mohammed said bringing Nigerian television advertisement market in line with global best practices could generate between $200-$400 million as additional revenue to the industry.
The Task Force is to identify best practice Audience Measurement System that would support the sustainable growth of the Nigeria creative and entertainment industry; recommend a framework for supporting the sustainability of the Audience Measurement System, independent of the federal government, and recommend a payment and disbursement framework among the key stakeholders in the industry.
Mohammed said the current Diary Audience Measurement System is not ideal for the critical transitional phase before full Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) migration.
‘’We need an objective and scientific Audience Measurement System that articulates the value of the content to consumers as well as the value of the audience to advertisers, particularly in the television sector.’’
He said the delay in adopting a scientific Audience Measurement System had resulted in under-investment in the sector, which is necessary to foster the growth of the industry as the advertising community continues to rely on subjective factors when making decisions on the content they want, as opposed to how many viewers the content truly attracts.
‘’As a consequence, television platforms are subjected to renting out space on their channels to sustain their business, and content producers have become increasingly over-reliant on sponsorship which, unfortunately, skews the authenticity of their creative output infavor of a few decision makers, rather than the millions of TV viewers,’’ the minister said.
The DSO launch in Enugu made the state the fifth, after Plateau, FCT, Kwara and Kaduna, to enjoy digital television. The next DSO roll-out is billed for Osun State.
Mohammed made donation of 100 set-top boxes to Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, while the governor also announced the purchase of 10,000 set-top boxes to be given free to low-income households across the state.
