GfK to take over as South African TV ratings tabulator at Broadcast Research Council in wake of Nielsen's shock exit

Thinus Ferreira

The Broadcast Research Council of South Africa (BRCSA) has appointed GfK, an NIQ company, to take over as South African TV ratings tabulator.

GfK's appointment announcement comes a week after Nielsen's shock announcement that it's quitting the country.

According to the BRCSA, GfK will "design and deploy the country's new Total Video Measurement service".

It comes after South Africa's broadcasters asked for an overhaul of the existing TAMS service and identified gaps in measuring the total video audience which continues to fragment and splinter across linear, recorded and catch-up, streaming, and other platforms and means.

The BRCSA in a press release, notes that "Broadcasters have been acutely aware of shifts in viewing that have built up over time and asked the BRC to ensure the service evolves accordingly".

After a procurement process was run, the BRC approached GfK with the finalisation of the contract that is underway.

The first phase of the switch-over will be a new TV currency service "feeding into daily TV trading", according to the BRCSA.

The BRCSA promises that the market "will have a clear, shared, and trusted daily TV currency that reflects today’s viewing reality for broadcast, and connected-TV usage, for broadcasters, agencies, and advertisers".

This first phase data will start to stream 1 January 2027.

The second phase will bring broadcaster on-demand and streaming for everyday planning, according to the BRCSA, so that broadcaster video-on-demand and streaming are incorporated, enabling planners to manage the combined impact of live and online viewing. 

This phase should be done by the end of 2027.

The so-called "total video picture" phase should be completed by the end of 2027 when the BRCSA plans to deliver a "unified, all-screens service" that will provide "one view of audiences across traditional television and digital video. This will be implemented during 2028.

The BRCSA says it is working with Nielsen "to coordinate an orderly transition".

"Nielsen will continue to deliver data until Phase 1 launches on 1 January 2027".

"By that avoiding any television data blackout prior to and during the handover, ensuring continuity for the industry throughout."

Gary Whitaker, BRCSA CEO, in the statement says "Today's announcement is about business confidence. We listened to the market, reviewed the status quo, commissioned a new Establishment Survey, and ran a rigorous, business-led process".

"With GfK’s appointment we now have a clear roadmap: first a new daily TV currency, then the inclusion of broadcaster on-demand, and by year-end 2027 a true Total Video service that mirrors how South Africans really watch. Broadcasters can prove their reach, agencies can plan with clarity, and advertisers can be sure every rand is working."

Lee Risk, Vice President, Media Measurement at GfK-NIQ, in the prepared statement, says "GfK-NIQ is proud to partner with the BRC and the South African TV industry to deliver a comprehensive, future-ready media measurement solution tailored to the unique dynamics of South Africa".

"This collaboration reflects a shared vision for innovation in media insights, and we’re confident in the strength of this partnership to elevate the industry."

In South Africa TV ratings crisis looms as Nielsen announces market exit

Thinus Ferreira

TV ratings tabulator Nielsen is exiting South Africa after decades, a change that could plunge the country's TV ratings system and everyone depending on its ratings data, into crisis.

The country's TV ratings custodian, however, says it will start work on finding a replacement for TAMS, although ad buyers and agencies are in shock and calling Nielsen's exit a massive blow to South Africa.

While Nielsen in South Africa remains quiet, news leaked that the ratings collector is shutting shop in South Africa.

Telmar, the service using Nielsen data to give ad planners, buyers, agencies and broadcasters insight into audiences and who all use the data to plan ad spend and track audience numbers, told clients in an email that Nielsen is exiting South Africa.

Nielsen's exit will also affect South Africa's Broadcasting Research Council (BRC) that will also have to find a new ratings provider.

The BRC functions similar to the UK's BARB and Australia's OzTAM.

In a Nielsen memo, the South African biz got a shock when they were told that "After careful consideration Nielsen has made the decision to exit the South African market".

"Earlier this month we notified the BRC of our interest in transitioning leadership of the Television Audience Measurement (TAMS) service to another provider within the next 12 months. They are currently evaluating an alternate partner and we anticipate they will share an announcement in the coming days."

"During this transition, we want to assure you that we will continue to fulfill all of our existing commitments."

Telmar which uses Nielsen ratings data, then told clients in a memo, "You may have seen the recent announcements from Nielsen and the BRC regarding TAMS. Some clients have asked whether this change will affect their TelmarHelixa services in South Africa. We want to assure you that it will not."

"Regardless of the BRC's appointed supplier of TAMS data, TelmarHelixa will continue to load and support the TV data as we always have. There is no disruption to your access, no impact on your systems and no change to transmit. Telmar has always been independent and data-neutral."

The BRC, about Nielsen's South Africa exit, said "A new service provider has been identified, and formal appointment processes are being finalised. Details will be announced within two weeks."

According to the BRC, "Nielsen has communicated its intention to exit the South African market within the next 12 months. The BRC is engaging with Nielsen to secure continuity of data during the handover period."

It said that "The BRC remains confident that the transition now underway will strengthen South Africa’s audience measurement system, safeguard industry needs, and deliver a world-class, future-proof solution."

Nielsen didn't respond to any media queries.

An insider told TVwithThinus that despite promises of no changes, that Nielsen's exit is a huge blow and that the impact of the decision to exit South Africa and switch-over will lead to upheaval, changes and uncertainty.

"It's shocking. The big worry is that when the data changes, the big question is how trendable the new data will be, and how trendable whatever the new data is, with past data".

"From a media perspective rates are set according to audiences. Let's say a show commanded a price of R100 000 for 100 000 eyeballs."

"What if the new data from a new ratings agency suddenly says the show that had 100 000 viewers now just have 50 000 viewers, or 150 000 viewers? Everybody's nervous because of the unknown unknowns. Nielsen planning to leave South Africa is huge."

Mmoni Ngubane, SABC spokesperson, didn't respond to a media query about the SABC's reaction to Nielsen's exit.

MultiChoice which operates DStv and Showmax, said it's monitoring developments.

eMedia that runs e.tv, Openview and eVOD, in response to a media query said "eMedia Investments acknowledges Nielsen's departure from South Africa and recognises this as a significant development in our industry's audience measurement landscape".

" As a major broadcaster and content provider, we understand the critical importance of robust, reliable audience measurement systems."

"While Nielsen's exit presents challenges, we are actively engaged with the BRC to ensure continuity and enhancement of audience measurement services. We note that the BRC has already identified a new service provider and is in the process of finalising formal appointment procedures."

How streaming viewership is measured in this ‘chaotic’ era for TV data

by Don Clarendon, TV Insider

Until a a decade or so ago, TV viewership stats were easily accessible through Nielsen ratings, and the only trick was knowing the difference between a ratings point and a share. But in the streaming era, TV viewership has become a guessing game.

Many streaming platforms don't share in-depth viewership data with the public, leaving it to companies like Nielsen, Luminate, and Parrot Analytics to estimate audience sizes for streaming TV series - for a cost.

And even then, streaming numbers for a given programme can differ from one analysis to another.

Net introduced its Top 10 lineup in February 2020, but that feature is only a ranking with no viewership numbers to be seen.

The streamer took another step toward ratings transparency in December 2023, when it started releasing twice-a-year engagement reports showing six-month viewership tallies for its offerings. That's progress, but streaming viewership data remains scarce.

When streamers are forthcoming, they tout their successes through various metrics. Here's some of the most common terminology in this evolving and often confusing field of audience measurement:

Hours/minutes viewed: The amount of time users have spent watching a given film or TV show. For hit TV shows - especially ones with many seasons available for streaming - this number can soar into the tens of billions of minutes.

Views/streams: The number of times a given film or TV show has been streamed. Netflix's latest engagement reports include the number of views as well as the hours viewed for each title.

Viewers: The number of people who watched a streaming title - or at least, the number of accounts that have. Amazon Prime Video and Max often use viewers as a metric for their public-facing viewership stats.

Cross-platform viewers: The number of viewers who watch a linear TV program live, on PVR, on-demand, or through streaming. As The Hollywood Reporter points out, a linear TV programme's streaming viewership numbers can be reverse-engineered if a TV network shares data about that programme's other viewership.

First X days: A qualifier for viewing statistics to show a film or TV show's reach and engagement over the first X number of days that the title has been streaming - the first 3 days, first 7 days, first 25 days, first 28 days, etc.

Completion/retention rate: The percentage of streaming viewers who finish a film or TV series, relative to the number who start it. The analytics company Digital I determined in 2022 that Netflix TV shows with completion rates below 50% were likely to be cancelled at the time, per What's On Netflix.

Binge rate: The percentage of streaming viewers who watch the episodes of TV series in rapid succession, relative to all of that title's viewers. 

In its viewership report for the second half of 2024 the analytics company Samba TV shared that docuseries and crime dramas have higher binge rates - defined in that report as the percentage of 31-day season finishers who binged that season in the first 5 days — than comedies or other dramas.

Starters, watchers, and completers: Categorisations Netflix has used for its viewers, as revealed in a July 2019 letter to a United Kingdom parliament committee. "Starters" are households that watch two minutes of a film or a TV episode, "watchers" are those that watch 70% of a film or a TV episode; and "completers" are those that watch 90% of a film or a season of a TV series.

Who’s watching what on TV? Who’s to say?

by John Koblin, The New York Times

People now watch so many programs at so many different times in so many different ways that measuring viewership has become a hot debate in the industry.

Last month, the Golden Globes drew 10.1 million viewers. No, wait, maybe 9.3 million.

The very same night, Sunday Night Football attracted 28.5 million people. Scratch that, perhaps it was 25.8 million. The Yellowstone finale? Possibly 11 million - or eight million?

Ratings have long been the currency of the TV business, helping to determine how much media companies can charge for commercials. But the $60 billion that advertisers spend on television each year largely depends on a shared leap of faith that the numbers are as good as gold.

That faith, though, is resting on shaky ground.

People now watch so many programs at so many different times in so many different ways - with an antenna, on cable, in an app or from a website, as well as live, recorded or on demand - that it is increasingly challenging for the industry to agree on the best way to measure viewership.

In some cases, media executives and advertisers are even uncertain whether a competitor’s show is a hit or something well short of that.

The scramble to sort out a suitable solution began nearly a decade ago as Netflix rose to prominence. It has only intensified since.

"It is more chaotic than it's ever been," said George Ivie, the chief executive of the Media Rating Council, a leading industry measurement watchdog.

For decades, there was no dispute - Nielsen's measurement was the only game in town.

But things started to go sideways after the emergence of streaming services like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video.

Nielsen had no ability - at least at first - to measure how many people clicked play on those apps.

The streamers, of course, knew exactly how many people were watching on their own service but they either selectively disclosed some data or did not bother releasing it at all.

Over the past two years, as nearly all the major streaming services have introduced advertising, they have released more data. But the data they release makes apples-to-apples comparisons difficult.

Netflix discloses what it calls "hours viewed" and "views" for its shows.

Prime Video and Max prefer to describe how many million "viewers" watched a hit of their choosing. The disclosures can be helpful to compare one show with another on the same streaming service.

Yet those figures, too, can lead to disagreements.

Take the new Amazon Prime Video reality series Beast Games, starring the YouTube personality MrBeast. 

Amazon said the show had amassed "more than 50 million viewers globally" in its first 25 days, making it the streamer’s most-watched unscripted series ever, which would suggest it was a runaway hit.

But the Entertainment Strategy Guy, an industry newsletter, recently tallied data from a wide range of third-party measurement groups and reached a different conclusion.

In the post, which analyses viewership in the United States, the newsletter stitched together statistics from Nielsen, YouTube, Google Trends, IMDb and more.

The newsletter's conclusion? The show "is not a hit - no matter what data you look at or how you cut it - but it also isn't a flop or bomb, either." 

Nielsen, which was bought by private equity in 2022 has long relied on several thousand households across the country to draw its estimates for what is watched on hundreds of television networks on a minute-to-minute basis.

That group of households, which Nielsen calls a panel, has equipment installed at home, and those numbers are used to estimate ratings of different demographic groups - breaking down the numbers by age, income, gender or race.

But during the pandemic, some of the households it tracked could not be serviced by Nielsen technicians given stay-at-home orders, and the panel rapidly degraded. 

In 2021, the Media Rating Council stripped the company of its accreditation, a seal of approval that the media and advertising industries monitor closely.

Rival Nielsen upstarts, including companies like VideoAmp, Samba, iSpot, Comscore and Luminate, began to pounce.

Some of the upstarts have relied on so-called big data, using intelligence from set-top boxes and smart TVs to best determine a ratings estimate.

"They're bringing an abacus to an A.I. fight," Peter Liguori, a longtime media executive and the executive chairman of VideoAmp, said about Nielsen.

"They're moving the beads from one side of the abacus to the other, and we're using tech and big data and A.I.-machine learning to create the most refined, highest fidelity, highly credible measurement system."

A Nielsen spokesman said: "VideoAmp is known for its inaccuracy, and their criticism of us is no exception. Nielsen has been using proprietary machine learning and advanced artificial intelligence for years."

VideoAmp got a shot in the arm in recent months when Paramount Global - the owner of CBS, the Paramount+ streaming app, and pay-TV networks like MTV and Comedy Central - got into an extended contract dispute with Nielsen.

Paramount complained that Nielsen's prices were too high, going as far to say the measurement firm's fees exceeded the advertising revenue of some of its cable channels. 

Nielsen can charge a midsize media company roughly $50 million a year, and that price can balloon to $300 million a year for a much larger company.

Paramount's pivot to VideoAmp caused some confusion in the industry. After the Golden Globes, CBS announced that 10.1 million people had watched the show, citing VideoAmp data. A day later, Nielsen said only 9.3 million had tuned in.

Last Monday, Paramount ended its four-month standoff with Nielsen and signed a new contract, saying it was "incredibly pleased" to do so.

Nielsen has said it has taken the necessary steps to adjust to the new media landscape. The company publicly discloses all sorts of streaming ratings data now. 

And it earned back its Media Rating Council seal of approval in 2023. 

Last month, in a move the company has described as a significant step, Nielsen also earned an accreditation for what it is calling its "Big Data + Panel" measurement, which will use intelligence from set-top boxes and smart TVs to supplement its panel measurements of 42,000 households. (VideoAmp is not yet accredited by the rating council.)

"In a world where there's so much data, and so many opportunities for people to push their own narrative, I think Nielsen is even more important than ever," said Michelle Gelman, the senior vice president of product at Nielsen.

Brian Wieser, an industry analyst, said that there had long been a desire among advertisers to find a Nielsen alternative but that the vast majority of deals used Nielsen data.

"Many marketers have long had frustrations with Nielsen, and there was always this latent desire among many stakeholders to see competitors to Nielsen," he said. "At the same time, Nielsen's superiority was pretty clear."

Peter Olsen, who recently retired after two decades as a top ad sales executive for A&E Networks, said it would be in everyone’s interest to rally around a single calculation - from Nielsen or elsewhere.

Let's be honest, these ratings are kind of farcical in a way," Olsen said.

"The thought that was going to be 100% accurate? I don't think anyone's ever felt that way. But we need some type of agreed-upon third-party industry currency that we can just transact on."

TV RATINGS. South Africa's Broadcast Research Council on the impact of the loss of thousands of analogue TV households to the ratings system, Eskom's blackouts, the rise of streaming services and zero ratings and technicians struggling to get to TAMS panel households.

by Thinus Ferreira

Swaths of South African analogue TV households going dark as analogue transmitters are switched off in provinces without having switched to DTT and being "lost" as countable viewers, Eskom's blackouts wiping households off ratings metrics, a rise in zero ratings, technicians struggling to get to households forming part of the TAMS panel due to the Covid-19, and even a rise in available video streaming services, are just some of the massive challenges confronting the Broadcasting Research Council of South Africa (BRC) and the accuracy of measuring South Africa's TV ratings.

South Africa's TV ratings system is facing the same challenges, complaints and problems as Nielsen because of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic making it more difficult to count available viewers and to track television ratings - with even some added issues as the country haltingly keeps lurching forward in its long-delayed switch from analogue to digital broadcasting and from Eskom's blackouts that it euphemistically calls "loadshedding".

In America, broadcasters are accusing Nielsen of severely undercounting TV households and negatively impacting on their television ratings - the currency used to peg ad rates - because of the Covid pandemic and lockdowns during which technicians didn't service people meter households properly and with households who moved or changed demographics.

It's not yet clear what exactly the impact has been and is with South Africa's TV ratings because of changes in counted TV households due to the ongoing Covid pandemic in the country, as well as the wiping of thousands of analogue TV households from the grid and thereby from eligibility to be counted in South Africa's TV ratings system.

The South African government and its communications minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams recently reneged on a decades-old promise and suddenly shockingly decreed that its flipping to a so-called staggered "hard switch-off" for provinces and ending analogue signal transmission even if all analogue TV households in a province or area haven't been migrated to digital terrestrial television.

The result is that people who made up part of the total South African TV universe and who watched television, disappear and have to be removed from the universe since they have a TV set but can't and don't watch TV any longer.

Earlier this year, the BRC announced that it planned to commission a more comprehensive TAMS (TV Audience Measurement Survey) audit due to the rapid changes in the video viewing landscape, a rise in zero ratings, loadshedding and greater challenges faced by technicians servicing the TAMS panel due to COVID-19. 

The BRC has now received a first interim report but says that it won't be sharing "the minutiae of the interim reports".

"We will not be sharing the minutiae of the interim reports, we will rather make the broader analysis of further interim reports available, covering separate areas, as we receive them," says Gary Whitaker, BRC CEO.

"The consolidated final TAMS audit report will be accessible to the industry towards the beginning of October 2021.”

The BRC says that there's been limited TAMS panel management over the past 12 months due to the Covid-19 pandemic and restrictions surrounding the various lockdown levels.

"While the full audit is still being conducted, the current interim report covers, firstly, environmental review, a qualitative survey of factors including power supply, viewing on other platforms and devices and secondly, a deep analysis of the market landscape and its changes from recent years."

According to the BRC's interim report on its TAMS panel, several things are impacting the measurement of viewing performance.

There have been changes in the structure of TV households during Covid-19 as well as the services being used, like video streaming services over and in parallel to traditional broadcasting.

"As the market moves more to digital services like DStv, OpenView, DTT (digital terrestrial television) etc, the choice of channels increase to the consumer. This means less time spent watching the larger free-to-air (FTA) channels, resulting in more fragmented audiences," the BRC says 

"The decline in analogue homes has accelerated in the past couple of months and will continue as the government rolls out their plans to switch off analogue altogether."

Then there is also performance within platforms and TV channels' ability to maintain or grow its share of broadcast TV within a platform.

"For instance, the SABC has seen a decline in performance across all platforms," the BRC says. "As the structure of the market has changed, the make-up of FTA channel viewing has evolved. Analogue-only homes made up two-thirds of SABC average monthly audiences in 2019."

"By May 2021 the platform contribution of analogue-only dropped to 52%, with DStv, OpenView and DTT contributing more."

Then there are also questions around the share of broadcast TV as a proportion of total measured TV.

"There are strong indications that analogue and DTT homes are supplementing their viewing with non-broadcast content as more streaming media channels become available to South Africans. The stay-at-home lockdown that the country has been under over the past 18 months has accelerated this trend as families seek more home entertainment," the BRC says .

Eskom's blackouts and loadshedding also worsened an already bad situation for South Africa's TV ratings system and tracking.

"The impact of loadshedding/load reduction is more unpredictable and can result in significant declines in overall viewing in the short term," the BRC says.

"While the other factors investigated are more gradual and can be considered in planning, loadshedding and load reduction cannot be predicted - particularly weeks or months in advance. The impact on reporting samples is greater than the impact on ratings although the weighting process makes some corrections for the lower samples."

"According to the report, all these factors can and do impact performance and reporting samples and increase the likelihood of zero-rated spots. As we know, loadshedding is the most unpredictable and most severe of these factors."

Gary Whitaker says that in the meantime, certain recommendations have been made based on the current findings.

These include "minute-by-minute data" and that consideration should be given to moving the currency to minute-by-minute data as opposed to the current second-by-second data, as it will marginally stabilise the data at the most granular spot-by-spot level, whilst having no impact at a program and channel level".

Consideration should also be given to the timing and narrative around universe updates. 

"Timing should allow for plans to be adjusted which should encourage planners to confirm their schedules and projections. Possibly more trading target markets should be included in the comparative tables."

Looking at source data for planning, more recent weeks of source data would be the best source for planning as opposed to the same time a year ago, the BRC says.

In terms of South Africa's analogue TV signals switch-off, for free-to-air (FTA) channels, the impact of the analogue switchover should be factored in. "This is more relevant for middle to lower-income target markets," the BRC says.

"While loadshedding cannot be planned, from a post-campaign perspective the performance should also be run using 'Loadshedding No' included in the target market definition for a particular day."

"This will give the performance against the fully available target market. However, the software systems do not currently support PCAs over multiple days being run in this manner."

"The BRC is and will always strive to ensure that all of our data is correct, in good health, reflective of the situation and representative of the universe," says Gary Whitaker.

ALSO READ: Broadcast Research Council (BRC) to do a more thorough 2-month audit of South Africa's TV audience measurement panel after shrinkage and decay due to Covid-19 pandemic.

Production temporarily shuts down on several American TV shows like The Walking Dead, The Originals and some films due to Hurricane Irma's tropical storm heading to Georgia.

Production has shut down on American TV shows The Walking Dead, The Originals and some films all filmed in Georgia for the approaching tropical storm that was Hurricane Irma.

Disney films, Marvel's Avengers: Infinity War and Ant-Man and The Wasp also filming in Georgia likewise temporarily halted production, as well as the new upcoming drama series Lodge 49 about a surfer who joins a fraternity.

It's not yet clear when production will resume on the 8th season of The Walking Dead, filmed in Atlanta.

The 8th season of The Walking Dead is set to start on Sunday 22 October in America and will roll out in South Africa and across Africa on FOX (DStv 125 / StarSat 133) on Monday 23 October at 21:00 as an Express from the US title.

The debut episode of the 8th season of the zombie drama will be its landmark 100th episode.

The production delay and shutdown is the second this year and this season after filming was temporarily halted in July after the shocking on-set death of stuntman John Bernecker who plunged to his death from a balcony to a concrete floor. The Walking Dead resumed production 5 days later.

Filming on the upcoming 5th and final season of the youth vampire drama The Originals seen in South Africa and Africa on VUZU AMP (DStv 103) and produced by Warner Bros Television also temporarily shuttered on Monday that is also filming in the state of Georgia.

The films Marvel's  Avengers: Infinity War and Ant-Man and the Wasp filmed at Pinewood Studios in Atlanta also closed up show for the oncoming storm.

All these productions are expected to resume production again later this week once the storm has passed.

In another strange TV biz development, America is currently without TV ratings right now because Nielsen, the company that tracks and tallies TV ratings is based in Tampa, Florida where Hurricane Irma caused mass evacuations and damage to infrastructure over the weekend.

Adweek reports that Nielsen has been forced to halt reporting of TV viewership and ratings since Sunday after the company's Tampa-area based facility was evacuated over the weekend.

Nielsen said that ratings will not resume until its employees are able to safely return.

"The team that reports ratings has evacuated the Tampa Bay area due to Hurricane Irma. Therefore, our ratings will be delayed in the near term," said Nielsen in a statement.