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I can reveal that the first independently measurable viewership information for TopTV - the first substantitive indication of how many viewers subscribed to TopTV there are for what specific channels, and what and how long they are watching - will be available by April.
TopTV that launched it's commercial pay TV operations in May 2010 will have its first real set of viewership data when that information is released to the TV industry one month before its first birthday. This information will allow TopTV to start the process of ''commercializing'' its TV channels and sell on-air ad spots to advertisers.
I can exclusively reveal that TopTV will, once this information is available, not be commercializing all of its channels immediately but implement a slow roll-out process similar to what MultiChoice's Oracle has done with DStv over the past 15 years. Once the new AMPS data from July to December 2010 becomes available in April and which will include TopTV, TopTV will decide which of its channels will be measured commercially on TAMS, South Africa's main TV viewership ratings system.
Since there's a very big and expensive cost implication when installing the so-called people meters in homes tracking viewership and viewing patterns across channels, not all of TopTV's channels will be measured in the first year of being on TAMS.
