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.

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