SAARF delivers near real-time data for TV

The SAARF Television Audience Measurement Survey (SAARF TAMS®) is able to measure the second-by-second movement of audiences whose TVs are connected to SAARF TAMS® peoplemeters. The 'peoplemeter' is an electronic, semi-automatic system used to measure TV viewing patterns. The system is fully automatic but is referred to as semi-automatic because it still relies on people's cooperation to push buttons on a remote control unit to log them in/out. There are currently around 1 350 weekly reporting households in South Africa with about 4 500 adults (16+) and 1 000 children (7 - 15) reporting.

The SAARF TAMS® peoplemeters automatically monitors everything that happens on the television set and related equipment such as video recorders, M-Net decoders etc. The channels that people are viewing on one or more TV sets in each home are thus recorded so that one knows which person in the households watched and at what time. Paul Haupt, CEO of SAARF says, "The data are automatically transferred from panel homes to a central computer every 24-hours via radio, cellular telephone or landline. Until mid-2006 the data will still be published weekly, as currently on Thursdays and will be available electronically via computer bureaux or on CD-ROM in PDF format. In the future the data will be reported overnight, and supplied electronically to subscribers. There will be a parallel-run period to evaluate the data and to give agencies and media owners the opportunity to put in the required systems which will ensure that the industry will get maximum benefit from this new development.

"There are several advantages to overnight reporting on SAARF TAMS®," says Haupt. "It translates into a revolution in the buying and selling model for television. A more automated system means more flexibility for buying and selling. With overnight ratings, an advertising campaign can be monitored on a daily basis, which allows for flexibility in the campaign strategy if needs be. This means that media buyers will be able to change spots that are not delivering and thus reduce wasting time and money on ineffective spots, thereby leading to a far more efficient use of resources."

In order to ensure that industry players are kept informed of developments in this regard, SAARF is planning a comprehensive update on TAMS and the introduction of overnight reporting.

The first series of industry presentations will cover some of the important changes that the industry will have to go through in preparation for overnight or next-day reporting. An introduction about the measurement of TV audiences as well as talks to highlight both Advertising Agency as well as TV Media owner perspectives will be given.

The team will be led by SAARF's CEO, Dr Paul Haupt and he will be accompanied by Chris Eyre, Executive Director of AGB Nielsen Media Research, Brian McMillan, SAARF Board Member and consultant to e.tv, and Mike Nussey, CEO of MindShare and SAARF and AMF Board Member.

The presentations will take place on the following dates:

Durban - TUESDAY 8 NOVEMBER 2005 AT 14:30 AT THE HOLIDAY INN GARDEN COURT, NORTH BEACH, DURBAN

Cape Town - WEDNESDAY 9 NOVEMBER 2005 AT 09:30 AT THE HOLIDAY INN, EASTERN BOULEVARD, CNR MELBOURNE & CORONATION ROADS, WOODSTOCK, CAPE TOWN

Johannesburg - THURSDAY 10 NOVEMBER 2005 AT 09:30 AT THE BRYANSTON COUNTRY CLUB, BRYANSTON DRIVE, BRYANSTON

SAARF is the provider of media audience and product/brand research data to the advertising, marketing and media industries. Its main objective is to direct and publish media and product/brand research for the benefit of its stake-holders, thereby providing data for target marketing and a common currency for the buying and selling of media space and time as well as for editorial and programme planning.