The Federal Government through the Ministry of Information and Culture has inaugurated a 15-man Audience Measurement Taskforce led by veteran industry professional, Tolu Ogunkoya, as Chairman.
Other members of the taskforce include Steve Bababeko, President, AAAN; Femi Adelusi, President, MIPAN, Bunmi Adeniba, President, ADVAN; Jibe Ologeh, President, EMCOAN; Yinka Oduniyi, President, ITPAN; Guy Murray-Bruce, President, IBAN.
Others are Pauline Ehusani, a Director at NBC; Kadaria Ahmed, Obi Asika, Garba Bello-Kankarofi, Ijedi Iyoha, Sa’a Ibrahim and Joe Mutah who is the Secretary of the Taskforce.
Speaking at the inauguration recently, the Honourable Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said that the inauguration is a culmination of a series of events which the Ministry embarked upon to deliver a world-class, scientific audience measurement system for Nigeria.
Giving a background, he explained, “We kick-started the process by setting up the Task Team on Audience Measurement, chaired by Alhaji Garba Bello-Kankarofi, a team that delivered a first-class report. We then followed that up with the selection of First Media and Entertainment Integrated (Nigeria) Limited, a marketing research company based in Lagos, to deliver audience measurement services in Nigeria.
“After that, we set up the joint industry Audience Measurement Task Force, which we are inaugurating today, to supervise and ensure an accurate, reliable and timely audience measurement system for the Nigerian broadcast and advertising industry.”
Explaining further, he said, “We have gone to this length to ensure the delivery of a scientific audience measurement system in this country because of its importance. As I have said at many fora, the absence of a scientific audience measurement system has resulted in under-development in the broadcast and advertising industries and stunted their growth.
Buttressing on this, the Minister added that Nigeria’s broadcast advertising market is punching far below its weight, especially when the country’s population is taken into account. He lamented that despite having a population more than three times that of South Africa, Nigeria’s television advertising market revenue in 2016 was US$309 million, compared to that of South Africa, which was US$1.3 billion. Nigeria’s broadcast advertising market is also third in Africa, behind that of South Africa and Kenya.
“Audience measurement is the missing link in the entire ecosystem and it will make our DSO, which we are going to aggressively implement this year, sustainable for Signal Distributors, Channel owners, TV content producers and Advertisers. Without it, we will not see the growth in our television or the value creation in the Creative Industry that the economy and people of Nigeria so need,” he said.
Among other responsibilities, the newly inaugurated Taskforce is tasked with the responsibility of providing industry oversight to the audience measurement issue in Nigeria, identifying best practice audience measurement system that will support the sustainable growth of the Nigerian Creative and Entertainment Industry, supervise the established framework for supporting the sustainability of the audience measurement system, independent of the Federal Government; recommend a payment and disbursement framework among the key stakeholders in the industry- Broadcasting Organizations of Nigeria (BON), Media Independent Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MIPAN) and Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN) and urgently grow the Nigerian television advertisement market to two or three times its current size, which is in line with benchmarks.