Television Audience Measurement Around the World
There are essentially three basic organizational structures to facilitate audience measurement as per the “Global Guidelines for Television Audience Measurement” (GGTAM) published by European Broadcasting Union (EBU). However, there are variations that ensure the continuity of the organizational arrangements across each of these structures in global practice.
Joint Industry Committee - JIC
An official contract is signed with a joint industry committee consisting of representatives from advertisers, agencies and research company(s) fulfilling IT and field work operations. The committee generally organizes the tender specifications regarding the service, invites tenderers, performs the tender, incorporates the articles, supervises the service, owns copyrights and determines the terms and conditions regarding information access license. The authorization for daily management activities, as well as technical duties and authorizations are granted to the representative management and technical consultancy committees.
JIC (Joint Industry Committee) is the most commonly accepted system in the world among these systems. Adopted in Turkey upon the incorporation of TİAK in 1992, the system is a JIC (Joint Industry Committee) system built by different actors of the industry who are brought together. JIC Institutions all over the world have the ability to determine, analyze and control each stage of the measurement service in order to provide the highest level of data security with minimal errors in a manner where viewing ratings represent the population.
Media Owners Committee - MOC
Users of certain audience information enter a tender/sign a contract for a particular service and guarantee funding. One of the most common examples for this type of structuring is the media owners committee that brings together the broadcasters. Advertisers and agencies are not involved in the process of determining the provisions of committee license or supervising the contract; however, they must be invited to take part in advisory user technical committees.
The disruptions encountered in official or regular provision of consultancy services to all users benefiting from the system are deemed unacceptable, especially in terms of advertisers and agencies. Media owners may hold the copyrights or sell the information to other parties by preventing the research companies from retaining such rights.
Own Service - OS
The research company presents audience information as a private commercial enterprise and signs a number of unilateral contracts with the parties selling information. These systems are expected to set forth an official provision for the regular user meetings arranged with user groups and be subject to an independent auditor and equivalence procedures that entail active engagement of the industry.