The Federal Government is to organize an Audience Measurement Conference to provide broadcast industry stakeholders the opportunity to contribute to efforts to establish a scientific Audience Measurement System for radio television broadcasting in the country.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, disclosed at the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON) 3rd International Summit on Digital Broadcasting in Nigeria, in Lagos on yestaerday, saying the event will hold 3rd October 2017.

*Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Minister
of Information and Culture

“It is imperative that we urgently put in place an industry framework that will ensure that Content Producers receive their just due for the value of the Content they create, as well as provide objective guarantees to the Advertising community on their Return-On-Investment on media placements. This will then have the overall effect of guaranteeing greater spending by the Advertisers, who are all seeking to grow their market share.

“This industry framework can only happen if the Ministry of Information and Culture, which fortunately supervises both the Broadcasting and Advertising industries, serves as a catalyst for putting in place a robust Audience Measurement System that is in line with global standards and supports the realization of the immense potential that the Nigerian Creative and Entertainment industry holds,” he said.

Alhaji Mohammed said for the Digital Switch Over from analogue to digital television to be sustainable for Signal Distributors, Channel owners, TV Content Producers and Advertisers, the scientific Audience Measurement System was critical to articulate the value of the content to Consumers, as well as the value of the audience to advertisers, particularly in the Television sector.

He said lack of a scientific Audience Measurement System has resulted in under-investment in the sector, which was 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.

The Minister said as a consequence, television platforms were subjected to renting out space on their channels to sustain their businesses, adding that content producers have become increasingly over-reliant on sponsorship which, unfortunately, skews the authenticity of their creative output in favor of a few decision makers and not the millions of TV viewers.