The Audience Measurement panel set up recently by the government to increase advertising revenue for the Nigerian broadcast and advertising sectors has been handed $700 million as the revenue target they must attract into the economy within the next three years. Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed gave this charge at the inauguration of the 15–man task force for an accurate, reliable, and timely audience measurement system for the Nigerian broadcast and advertising sectors.
He stated that the near-total absence of a scientific audience measurement system was the reason behind the persistent under-development of the broadcast and advertising sectors of the economy.He highlighted that Nigeria’s broadcast advertising market conservatively at $309 million is punching far below its weight in comparison to that of South Africa, which generated $1.6 billion in 2016.
The minister said the advertising community has continued to rely on subjective factors when making decisions on the content they want, as opposed to how many viewers the content truly attracts.
He said the absence of a scientific audience measurement regime was behind the current under-investment and under-development of the sector.
The minister pointed out that the current model of operation will never allow the Industry to attain its full potential, adding it stunts the quality of the creative content that can be created and also limits the capacity of television platforms to invest in dynamic content that consumers will love to patronise.
He described a world-class audience measurement system as critical to the success of the Digital Switch Over (DSO), noting without it there will be no growth in the television or the value creation in the Creative Industry that the economy and people of Nigeria desire.
Responding, the Chairman of the Task Force, Mr. Tolu Ogunkoya acknowledged that the job before the group was quite enormous, however, he promised that his committee would work tirelessly to ensure that they meet and even exceed the expectations of Nigerians, especially those in the creative, broadcast and advertising sectors.