TV ratings confusion riles Aussie agencies

Australia's TV ratings system and the destination of USdollars 1.3 billion worth of advertising generated annually remain uncertain as ACNielsen and the company brought in to replace it continue to produce markedly different numbers. As the new season of programming started with the end of the southern hemisphere summer, both ACNielsen and newcomer OzTam are tallying ratings - even though the former lost the contract to collect the ratings of Australia's three commercial terrestrial channels and the state broadcaster ABC in 1999. However, OzTam is owned by the three commercial networks, and advertising agencies have doubts about its impartiality. As a result, agencies continue to subscribe to ACNielsen's peoplemeter-generated findings. OzTam has 3,000 peoplemeters in state capital city homes, compared with AC Nielsen's 2,500. When each produced their findings for the opening night of the new season, OzTam found that Channel Seven headed the ratings with 1.55 million viewers for its Popstars programme. However, ACNielsen put Channel Nine's Backyard Blitz in pole position with 1.82 million viewers. Conversely OzTam put Backyard Blitz in fourth with 1.43 million viewers and AC Nielsen placed Popstars in the same position with 1.61 million. Mr Ian Garland, managing director of ACNielsen International, Australia, defended his company - after reports that its findings were skewed towards older viewers - by releasing a detailed breakdown of the composition of the viewing panels. He took a swipe at OzTam saying, "We have yet to see convincing facts from the new provider to satisfy the broadcasting and advertising industries that their recruited panel look like the market being measured." OzTam admitted in a leaked memo to subscribers that there may be glitches in its data. The company said its panel had too many families with young children, and what it called "light" viewers, normally too busy to watch TV. "Variations such as these are normal in the establishment of any new panel and they can take time to be brought in balance," the memo added. The advertising industry has been predictably outraged by the admission. Ms Anne Parsons, managing director of Zenith Media, one of Australia's largest media agencies, commented: "We need disclosure from both ACNielsen and OzTam. What the discrepancies have highlighted is that we have two companies going through the same processes and coming up with dramatically different results."

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