Local media monitoring goes digital

By Fredrick Obura

The need to refine media consumption data in Kenya is fast becoming an imperative, with the impending plans to move the country towards digital broadcasting.

According to Ipsos Synovate Kenya, digital migration will diversify TV viewership, bringing with it the need to adopt more efficient and accurate strategies of audience research.

 “The migration to digital transmission will allow more players and new applicants to tap into the budding sector, therefore providing viewers with a wider array of entertainment choices. As such, this means that the scope of audience research will widen over the next year and thereby increasing respondent burden,” noted Ipsos Media CT Director, Joe Otin.

Confirming the company plans to put in place measures that will take into account the wider audience scope, as well as revolutionise its research process, Maggie Ireri, Ipsos Synovate managing director said the research firm is in the process of implementing an electronic means of data collection that is robust enough to work in the African environment.

 Audience research

“Ipsos Synovate is keen on introducing audience research technology to replace the handwritten logs in order to improve the data collection process and enhance the ability to provide more comprehensive analysis of media consumption. The technology provides stricter quality control and allows us to provide data on a weekly basis rather than on a quarterly basis,” added Joe. Currently the company uses paper and telephonic modes of data collection, which analyses a selected representative sample.

The world also witnessed the introduction of the Portable People Meter, (PPM) a means of collecting audio signals that indicate the kind of media that the user is exposed to.

 Following the successful trials of the PPM a few years back Ipsos Synovate Kenya is set to introduce a new system of audience research that is less cumbersome to the user. The new technology, which will be uploaded into users’ smartphones, will collect data about the respondent’s usage of it, such as when the phone has been charged, the number of key presses, and when the phone is off.  The tool which has been unveiled in the UK, Italy, Mexico and UAE, will be launched into the Kenyan market next week.