SATELLITE & CABLE: TNS Taiwan's TV ratings roll-out to challenge Nielsen

<p>Taylor Nelson Sofres is set to roll out TV ratings research in </p><p>Taiwan with a Peoplemeter panel comprising 2,700 households, nearly </p><p>three times that of the current ACNielsen panel. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS) managing director Jim Sailor told MEDIA the </p><p>first daily rating report will be available in the second quarter of </p><p>2001, providing TV ratings for all terrestrial, cable and digital TV </p><p>channels. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Of the total number of panel households, 1,500 will come from TNS' </p><p>current consumer study panel; Mr Sailor said the new Peoplemeter system </p><p>will implement picture matching technology to measure digital TV. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"We're currently gathering client support from agencies and TV stations </p><p>and the reactions have been extremely positive," he said. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>It is understood that TV media owners in Taiwan want to ultimately </p><p>replace ACNielsen's TV ratings with the new TNS report, in a bid to push </p><p>accountability of the data to attract advertising. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Taiwan media owners are currently questioning the accountability of </p><p>ACNielsen's TV ratings report, as the existing Peoplemeter panel of 800 </p><p>individual households (which will be increased to 1,000 from June) is </p><p>deemed insufficient to measure viewership. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Cable TV owners raised the fact that the ACNielsen results, which </p><p>generally report less than one rating point for cable TV - even for the </p><p>popular cable channels - do not reflect true viewership of the </p><p>medium. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"How could we still be surviving if our rating points were really still </p><p>that low?" asked one cable TV owner. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>