ACNielsen labels ITV attacks as unethical

BANGKOK: Thailand's free-to-air television station, ITV, has launched a public attack against ACNielsen, calling into question the research firm's methodologies and standards.

by | 02/08/2002

ITV, whose own research demonstrates the popularity of its programmes, consistently receives poor ratings from ACNielsen.

The station interviewed people used by ACNielsen and aired footage of poor households to back up its claim that the agency survey focuses too heavily on low-income viewers. ITV's managing director Sanchai Thiew-prasertkul suggested that a Government agency be set up to offer competing ratings services. "Why should one foreign firm set the destiny of the industry?

he asked.

ITV has close connections to the Thai Government, with Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's family corporation controlling the station.

Sunchai Anuman-Rajadhon, managing director of ACNielsen Thailand, decried ITV's actions as "unethical

and said the station's findings were inaccurate.

According to SunchaiACNielsen's sampling leans heavily towards higher income brackets, with a majority of viewers drawn from the upper and middle-income groups, which represent about 40 per cent of the population.