Yemisi Izuora
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has set
up a task team of industry experts to work out the modality for
setting up a scientific Audience Measurement System, as part of
measures to boost radio and television advertising revenue in the
country.
The Minister announced the setting up of the team in Enugu, Enugu
State, at the launch of the Digital Switch Over (DSO) in
television in the state, noting that bringing Nigerian TV
advertisement market in line with global best practices could bring an
additional 200-400 million dollars in revenue to the industry.
He said the task team will comprise 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.
The Team’s terms of reference include to identify best practice
Audience Measurement System that will 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.
Alhaji Mohammed said the current Diary Audience Measurement System is
not ideal for the critical transitional phase before full Digital
Terrestrial Television (DTT) migration, adding: ”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 in
favor of a few decision makers, rather than the millions of TV
viewers,” the Minister said.
On the DSO launch in Enugu, Alhaji Mohammed said the state is the
fifth, after Plateau, FCT, Kwara and Kaduna, to enjoy digital
television.
”There is no better evidence of our commitment to rapidly spread the
massive benefits of digital television to the people of Nigeria…We
are now at the cruise level of the journey we started in Jos Plateau
State, in April 2016, as the DSO train has now transversed Abuja,
Ilorin, Kaduna, to arrive here in Enugu, its latest stop. From here,
the DSO train will proceed to Osun State, as we continue our rapid
rollout of digital television across the country,” he said.
The Minister announced the 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.