Kantar Media and a Financial Offer Which Is “Significantly Above Expectations.” What Happens after the New TV Audience Assessment Tool Is Selected
The representatives of the board which selected the institution in charge of assessing TV audiences in 2024-2029 imply that it will take some time until Kantar Media enters the market of the Republic of Moldova; the main reason is a larger financial offer. They claim solutions to cover part of the costs are to be sought. Meanwhile, the TV channels still benefit from the services of the only company currently operating in this sector, TV MR MLD (AGB Nielsen Media Research official representative).
Kantar Media which was selected the winner on March 29 requested the amount of 1.8 million Euros per year to assess the audience shares. “It’s beyond expectations, because they offer state-of-the-art technology, which implies very high prices. The market can barely cover even less than 1 million Euros per year. Only if Kantar can convince the market that their services are state-of-the-art and worth this amount of money this partnership may take place. From the technical point of view and based on the specifications submitted to the contest, Kantar provided one of the most complete offers,” Svetlana Buza, TV8 channel director and president of the Board, said for Media Azi.
Together with her colleagues from the commission, she says they are going to search for solutions to identify the necessary sources. “In the coming months, we will initiate discussions, attract budgets, find financial resources, grants, and donations to cover at least a part of the expenses. It is important to attract more people into this circle, such as donors and partners, and, of course, we as the TV channels will also make our contribution. If we succeed, we will proceed to the next step, i.e. invite the company. At first, we were more optimistic, but the price for installing the panels and the costs for each year of assessment is quite high. An important factor we requested is for the company to be present in Moldova, to have an office, etc.,” Adrian Buraga, Jurnal TV director, told us.
Svetlana Buza mentioned the need to create an organization similar to the Romanian Association for Audience Measurement (ARMA). “The Republic of Moldova needs a company or an association which could keep controlling audience assessment on the market. This is why we assumed the responsibility to select Kantar Media as the winner, and then to agree with the entire market, to create this organization which will deal with finding the funds and start negotiations with Kantar. It should include advertising agencies, TV channels, radios, sales houses, and all those involved in this process,” she says.
Therefore, until the start of the actual assessment, which is unlikely to take place next year, the TV channels will keep using the services of the currently operating company, TV MR MLD (AGB Nielsen Media Research official representative). “However, the data recently delivered by them is increasingly catastrophic. If today a certain citizen from a certain locality did not turn the TV on, the figures may seem at least strange. One day, we have 0 points, and another day, we have 5 points, this is how we get a very big gap, even though it is the same time and the same TV program,” Buraga mentions, among other things.
The regional or local TV channels also are waiting to see how things will evolve. Angela Zaharova, Elita TV station producer from Rezina, wonders “what the point of the effort to find a new operator is if the prices are even higher.” “Local/regional TV channels can’t afford assessments even at the current costs. It’s really expensive. Until now, we had a component in a project aimed at covering the expenses for audience assessment, but when we contacted the AGB Nielsen representative, they told us that they didn’t ‘play’ with such small-scale channels. For the next few years, we have no budgets for this purpose,” the journalist explains.
“In fact, creating a responsible, independent organization with a board which manages the data correctly instead of merely playing with the numbers the way it was done before would be a solution. If these principles were complied with, we would have some ground for discussions between the regional market stakeholders and this organization, we could attract some funds from abroad, and we could also contribute a certain share,” Zaharova concludes.
Media Azi previously wrote that Kantar Media is a giant entity in the industry and also assesses the TV audience in Romania. Media Azi provides the profile of this company. The company positions itself as a partner of “96 out of the 100 largest advertisers in the world” and provides PR and advertising services, analysis, consulting, brand development, and audience assessment; it has also offered to provide these services in the Republic of Moldova.
