FG Picks APCON, ADVAN, BON As Audience Measurement Task Force

The Federal government has announced that the representatives of Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON), National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Advertisers’ Association of Nigeria (ADVAN) and other industry experts will constitute an Audience Measurement Task Force.
Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture, disclosed this at the launch of Digital Switch Over (DSO) in Enugu State recently. He stated that the composition was part of measures to boost radio and television advertising revenue in the country.
The Task Force will identify best practice Audience Measurement System that would support the sustainable growth of the Nigeria creative and entertainment industry; recommend a framework for supporting the sustainability of the Audience Measurement System, independent of the federal government, and recommend a payment and disbursement framework among the key stakeholders in the industry.
Mohammed said the current Diary Audience Measurement System is not ideal for the critical transitional phase before full Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) migration.
‘’We need an objective and scientific Audience Measurement System that articulates the value of the content to consumers as well as the value of the audience to advertisers, particularly in the television sector.’’
He added that the delay in adopting a scientific Audience Measurement System had resulted in under-investment in the sector, which is necessary to foster the growth of the industry as the advertising community continues to rely on subjective factors when making decisions on the content they want, as opposed to how many viewers the content truly attracts.
‘’As a consequence, television platforms are subjected to renting out space on their channels to sustain their business, and content producers have become increasingly over-reliant on sponsorship which, unfortunately, skews the authenticity of their creative output in favour of a few decision makers, rather than the millions of TV viewers,’’ the minister stated.