Channel V hits China high note

It's official: Channel V outperformed CCTV 3 over the period of

March 20-April 16, according to the results of the first

StarTV-sponsored Peoplemeter survey in China.

Conducted by ACNielsen, the Peoplemeter study covered 50 homes in each

of the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan and Shenyang, and is

a two-year project covering all major competitive channels.

"This is the most proactive thing in research that any TV company has

ever done in the world's biggest market," said Channel V sales director

Jasper Donat.

"The ironic thing is that if you talk to anyone impartial, you still get

asked how many homes you reach."

The purpose of the Peoplemeter survey, which launched late last year

with initial data available as of December, was to finally establish how

many people were actually watching, what they were watching and how long

they watched for.

Up until this point, regional broadcasters transmitting into mainland

China have either relied on a diary survey conducted by Sofres, or

simply pointed to penetration (that is, number of homes passed or able

to view).

Media agencies and advertisers have thus had to largely rely on a

combination of instinct and good faith when making advertising

decisions; the availability of the Peoplemeter data now offers a more

concrete base to start from.

"The study covers all the Star TV channels in China, and the results are

genuinely surprising to us," said StarTV executive vice-president of

advertising sales, Toby Hayward.

"We've always maintained that all our channels are popular in China; now

we have third-party statistics to back this claim up."

Apart from confirmed numbers (which also allow advertisers to gauge the

success of any media campaign placed with Star's channels), the study

also allows for qualititative analysis - and, consequently, for

programming to be fine-tuned or even designed appropriately for that

market.

"Among our channels in China, Phoenix is the top - that in itself is not

surprising, given that it is in Mandarin and it is tailored for the

market - but the Peoplemeter figures show that both Channel V and Star

Sports are also very popular," Mr Hayward said.

"The Channel V results are very high given that it is a very niche

channel.

What the data shows is that when viewers are offered the choice, the

quality of our programming comes through very strongly.

"Essentially, the quality of all our channels is giving us a very high

level of coverage in China."

Last year, a much-publicised row broke out between Channel V and MTV

over who was No.1, and one result of the spat was that StarTV became

more determined than ever to prove that the old "number of homes"

standard was, quite simply, irrelevant.

"Last year, it was all about homes. (The row with MTV) may have created

the impression that that is all (the TV industry) is interested in,"

said Mr Hayward.

"Now, with the Peoplemeter study in China, we have qualitative data

which can be used as reinforcement for everything we've always been

saying about Channel V or StarTV as a whole in that market.

"We have a product which is extremely popular with viewers in the

mainland." But, the purpose of investing in the Peoplemeter study was

not simply to prove that Star TV is in China, he said.

"We always knew we were there. The purpose was to take the debate

further on," Mr Hayward told MEDIA.

"A lot of the time, we are selling to people who either can't understand

our broadcasts into China because of the language issue, or they live

outside the area of distribution.

"The Peoplemeter figures offer reassurance that we are on target."

Of course, not all the questions posed have been or can be answered by

the Peoplemeter data alone, but as Mr Hayward pointed out, the survey

results offer progress on previous assumptions and offer an important

element of feedback, which will be reflected in programming

decisions.

TOP 21 CHANNELS IN CHINA

(Ranked by percentage of people on panel who watched each channel)

% of people Ave viewing hours

Rank Channels watched watched by

each viewer

1 CCTV1 (General/News/

Current Affairs) 88.5 8 hrs 6 mins

2 Phoenix Chinese Channel 76.0 5 hrs 58 mins

3 CCTV2 (Economics) 69.3 2 hrs 14 mins

4 CCTV6 (Movies) 67.4 7 hrs 34 mins

5 CCTV5 (Sports) 61.7 2 hrs 43 mins

6 Zhejiang Satellite 56.1 2 hrs 2 mins

7 Shandong Satellite 54.0 2 hrs 17 mins

8 CCTV8 (Entertainment/Arts) 53.1 4 hrs 23 mins

9 STAR Sports 51.2 2 hrs 15 mins

10 CCTV4 (News in foreign lang.) 46.3 1 hr 55 mins

11 CCTV7 (Child/Military/

Science) 43.2 1 hrs 36 mins

12 Channel (V) 40.0 3 hrs 46 mins

13 Sichuan Satellite 38.7 2 hrs 46 mins

14 CCTV3 (Opera/Music) 38.3 3 hrs16 mins

15 Guangdong Satellite 35.7 1 hr 5 mins

16 Shanghai Satellite 35.3 2 hrs 8 mins

17 Beijing TV1 34.8 5 hrs 47 mins

18 Jiangsu Satellite 32.1 2 hrs 39 mins

19 Hunan Satellite 31.5 1 hr 52 mins

20 Yunnan Satellite 30.9 48 mins

21 Phoenix Movies 28.2 12 hrs 56 mins

Source: ACNielsen.