Thousands of UAE households will give television advertisers a better idea of how to spend their millions of dirhams a year through electronic monitoring of their viewing habits. For the first time in the Emirates, randomly selected TV sets will be equipped with a small electronic box that monitors when the set is switched on or off, who is watching and what they are watching.
Common in Europe and North America, the metering system allows advertisers to gauge whether they are hitting their target market and whether TV companies' rates are fair. Still in the planning stage, the TV Audience Measurement system is a collaboration between the National Media Council (NMC) and the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA). "Given the current economic climate, accurate information is of increasing value and the NMC and TRA have decided that the time is right for a new layer of TV audience measurement," said an NMC spokesman.
"The NMC and TRA will be inviting commercial companies to make proposals for the installation, management and financing of the people-meter scheme." The two agencies will play a regulatory role, the spokesman said, and by the end of the year will announce the regulations after a study is conducted. The system will increase TV advertising expenditure and help the Government send out public messages more effectively, according to WAM, the state news agency. Major TV advertisers said yesterday they welcomed the move, but were cautious over claims that they would raise their spending. "As advertisers, we spend a lot of money in marketing our brands through various mediums, including television, and we need a reliable source to help us calculate our return on investment," said Michael Jackson, the chief marketing officer of the Dubai-based developer Union Properties. "The need for accurate, reliable, and actionable data of television viewership behaviour patterns has never been more essential." Sami Eid, the senior marketing and media manager of Aldar, the Abu-based property developer, also welcomed the move, but said an even spread of meters throughout the UAE was essential. Mr Eid said access to reliable information would not necessarily encourage Aldar to spend more on TV advertising, only to focus it more effectively. In 2007, total measured expenditure on advertisements in the region reached about US$8billion (Dh29.38bn), a 20 per cent rise on 2006, WAM reported, without citing its source. Television received 43 per cent of overall advertising spending. Mazen Hayek, the group director of marketing, PR and commercial for MBC, said the news came as "a positive surprise". "If the UAE manages to do it properly and quickly, that's very good news for everyone," Mr Hayek said. * The National
