Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja
In a bid to realise the Digital Switch Over (DSO) from the analogue system, the Federal Government has inaugurated a task team on audience measurement.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, while inaugurating the 15-member task team which included Alhaji Garba Bello Kankarofi as chairman and Mr Joe Mutah as secretary, said the country was heralding a new dawn in its broadcast industry.
Mohammed also said by bringing the Nigerian television advertisement market to what it should be, which is two to three times the current size, could result in additional $200 to $400 million of revenue to the industry.
“This is our next task and we invite all well-meaning practitioners in this industry to join hands with us to achieve this,” Mohammed said.
The minister, however, charged the team to identify best practice, audience-measurement system that will support the sustainable growth of the Nigeria Creative Industry and recommend a framework for supporting the sustainability of the audience measurement system, independent of the Federal Government.
Mohammed also directed the team to recommend a payment and disbursement framework among the key stakeholders in the industry such as the Broadcasting Organizations of Nigeria (BON), Media Independent Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MIPAN) and the Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN).
Earlier in his remarks, Mohammed said the digital switch over of the nation’s television from analogue was well underway, even as he said the government was set to announce a new, accelerated agenda in order to ensure that the DSO became a veritable tool to help lift the creative industry out of the crippling effect of COVID-19.
“Audience measurement is the missing link in the entire ecosystem and it will make our DSO sustainable for signal distributors, channel owners, TV content producers and advertisers. Without it, we will not see the growth in our television and the value creation in the creative industry that the economy and people of Nigeria so need.
“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.
“The absence of a world class measurement regime 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,” Mohammed stated.
The minister further said as a consequence, television platforms were subjected to renting out space on their channels to sustain their businesses, and content producers were at the mercy of sponsors which, unfortunately, skewed the authenticity of their creative output in favor of a few decision makers, instead of the millions of television viewers.
“The existing model will never enable Nigeria’s creative industry to reach its full potential. It stunts the quality of the content that can be created and also limits the capacity of television platforms to invest in dynamic contents that consumers will be attracted to.
“Furthermore, the value of Nigeria’s Broadcast Advertising Market is not proportional to the country’s population when compared to the top three markets in the Sub-Saharan Africa. Despite having a population more than three times that of South Africa, Nigeria’s Television Advertising Revenue in 2016 was US$309 million, compared to that of South Africa, which was US$1,301 million.
“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 spend 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 broadcast 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 Industry holds.
“Currently, government is subsidizing the signal distribution because the channels cannot pay for the carriage of their stations by the licensed signal distributors, who have invested in equipment and transmission. Things cannot continue like this. Government cannot continue to subsidize television forever, hence we must create a sustainable ecosystem.
“The broadcast industry needs an audience measurement system that will encourage investment, mainly through increased advertising spend driven by confidence in the audience ratings data. An incremental advertising revenue will encourage current and prospective channel owners to create additional television channels necessary for the success of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT),” Mohammed also said.