The Federal Government is to organise 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 this in Lagos on Tuesday at the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON) 3rd International Summit on Digital Broadcasting in Nigeria, saying the event will hold October 3, 2017.

“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 realisation of the immense potential that the Nigerian creative and entertainment industry holds,” he said.

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 is 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 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.

The Minister said as a consequence, television platforms are subjected to renting out space on their channels to sustain their businesses and 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.

“Further, the value of Nigeria’s broadcasting advertising market is not proportionate with its population when compared to the Top 3 markets in the Sub-saharan Africa region. Despite having a population three times more than South Africa, Nigeria’s television advertising revenue in 2016, at US$309 million, was behind that of South Africa at US$1,301 million.

“By 2020, the gap between South Africa and Nigeria is projected to marginally decline to 72 percent. Similarly, in the radio sector, the value of Nigeria’s 2016 advertising revenue of US$81 million was behind its peers, South Africa and Kenya, both at US$343 million. Kenya is projected to overtake South Africa in 2017 as the leading radio advertising market,” he said.

Mohammed stressed that in both South Africa and Kenya, the value and growth rate of the broadcasting advertising revenue is largely influenced by the availability of a scientific Audience Measurement System that provides confidence to advertisers in measuring their Return-on-Investment.

He noted that bringing Nigerian TV advertisement market into line with benchmarks that is 2 to 3 times the current size could result in additional $200 - $400 million of revenue to the industry, based on current comparisons with other African countries.

The Minister said the Federal Government had already taken a critical long-term decision to support the Nigeria creative and entertainment industry by ensuring and funding the inclusion of a middle-ware that is capable of scientific Audience Measurement on Set-Top Boxes, hence the need to develop the framework.

“The existing model will never enable the Nigeria’s creative and entertainment industry to reach its full potential. It stunts the quality of the content that can be created and it also limits the capacity of Television platforms to invest in dynamic offerings that consumers will be attracted to,” he noted

•L-R; Chief Executive, BSP Media International, Benjamin Olusegun Pius; Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed; Vice-Chairman, Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON), Hajia Sa'a Ibrahim and Chief Executive, MultiChoice Nigeria, Mr. John Ugbe at the 3rd BON International Summit on Digital Broadcasting in Nigeria, on Tuesday in Lagos

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