The BC Approves the Regulation on Organizing the Company Selection Contest for Audience Assessment
The regulation on the organizing the contest for selecting an institution which will assess the audience and market shares in 2024-2029 was approved by the Broadcasting Council (BC) at the meeting held on July 14. Based on the document, the BC will initiate the procedure for electing the competition board members who will select the assessor. The regulation also stipulates the authorities and operation of the board, the procedure for organizing and conducting the competition, and the details of signing agreements.
According to the approved document, the competition board consists of nine members and two observer members, six of whom are appointed by the audiovisual media service providers under the jurisdiction of the Republic of Moldova and who are beneficiaries of the current audience and market share assessment system. Three other members will be suggested by advertising distributors who are also current system beneficiaries. The BC will appoint two observer members from among its members, and they will have no right to vote.
The main duties of the board include researching the market of institutions specialized in assessing audience shares and market shares; drafting and approving the Specifications which will contain qualification requirements and other obligatory information; drafting and approving the invitation to join the competition of specialized institutions; organizing the contest; announcing the results, as well as providing clarifications to the institutions specialized in assessing audience shares and market shares regarding the Specifications and other documents issued by the Competition Board. The members’ activity shall not be remunerated. The board, in its turn, will cover its financial needs mainly from contributions by media service providers and advertising distributors represented in the board, according to the regulation.
The procedure for organizing the contest for selecting the assessor provides, fist of all, for publishing an organization announcement on the BC page and sending invitations to profile companies at least two months before the offers are open. They will be opened during a public meeting, and the participants will present their files at another assessment meeting which will also be public. The regulation also obliges the assessor to file quarterly and audience reports to the BC free of charge, and the agreements with the beneficiaries will be signed for five years.
MONOPOLY IN THE AUDIENCE ASSESSMENT MARKET
For more than a decade, the TV audiences in the Republic of Moldova have been assessed by a single company, TV MR MLD (an official representative of AGB Nielsen Media Research) founded by a British company with offshore origins in Belize. Media Azi wrote with reference to the 2019 contest, that it was the only company participating in the licitation, and that the others refused due to their lack of interest in the local market, according to the board members at the time. However, Pro TV Chisinau representatives affirm that two other companies, a British one and a German one, presumably showed great interest, but withdrew due to the limited deadline for filing offers which was only 30 days. Jurnal Trust Media also called the process of selection flawed at that point.
Aneta Gonta, BC Vice-President claims that the new regulation “has a number of new elements, the most important one is the possibility of self-regulation in the sphere, which means that out of the nine members of the board, six will be suggsted by the providers who benefit from the current audience assessment system. We believe that the need for unanimity of their vote could solve the problem of monopoly until now by preventing a single company from delegating the members of the Competition Board.”
