TV is keeping more eyeballs chanelled

The idiot box is getting smarter as new ways of watching television emerge within an expanding offer of channels, claimed 2009 edition of "One Television Year in the World" report, produced and compiled by Eurodata TV Worldwide.

The French-based international firm with 20 years of experience in collation and compiling of data also reveals that the time dedicated by viewers to TV continues to grow in many countries. In 2008, the worldwide daily viewing time reached 188 minutes, a one minute increase from 2007.

Jacques Braun, Vice-President of Eurodata TV Worldwide said: " TV consumption is quickly changing." He made this statement after evaluating the 2009 edition of its report that assesses 2008's worldwide TV consumption figures and ratings successes of programmes from over 80 territories.

TV audience measurement is quickly developing worldwide. Several countries, lacking high standard measurement until now, recently took a big step by introducing people meter systems. Azerbaijan, Belarus, Iceland, Macedonia and Morocco entered the "One TV Year in the World" report this year.

In the UAE, e-vision has conveyed that this will see the introduction of metering system by which the industry can navigate their plans and have an accurate picture of who is watching what.

Emphasising on the need of an effective people monitoring, Humaid Rashid Sahoo, CEO, E-Vision said: "We do realise the importance and relevance of such a yardstick and for that reason we are in the process of putting in place the system and hardware to initiate metering system."

Other countries perfected their methodology to take into account new ways of consuming TV. Norway, Denmark, Finland and The Netherlands adopted time shifted viewing measurement in 2008. It is observed that the implementation of this methodology usually leads to an increase of the daily viewing time. These results are promising for the territories who are preparing to deploy time shifted measurement in the near future.

"One TV Year in the World" also provides a deeper look into key Asian countries, by including new regions in China (Fujian, Jiangsu) and in Japan (Kansai, Nagoya).

Figures reveal that this year again, in both entertainment and fiction genres, local programmes are in competition with many international productions.

Pioneer reality TV shows, Big Brother, Survivor, and British flagship formats are still among the most successful programmes. For instance, the competition Strictly Come Dancing appeared in the top 10 rankers of twelve territories in 2008.

As far as fiction is concerned, US series continue to steal the show thanks to CSI, whereas the Colombian format Yo Soy Betty, la Fea benefits from a big exposure notably through its local adaptations. Russian series are still popular in neighbouring countries. More surprisingly, Turkish series, that remained rather unnoticed in their country, turn out to have an avid following in the Middle East; such is the case for the romantic series Gümü? – Noor in Arabic.

Last year was a new year of success for sports on television. As Phil Savage, Editorial Director of SportBusiness, pointed out: "In a year which saw football's Euro 2008 and the Olympic Games, it is perhaps no real surprise that sports programming delivered the goods for broadcasters around the world." Numerous records have been beaten, sports wise and ratings wise alike. In Spain, the final of the Euro 2008 obtained the best audience ever registered in the country with 14.5 million viewers on average and 80.9 per cent market share.

The Olympic Games obviously were a main event in Asia. Its various competitions registered the best sport audience in eight territories, while the Opening Ceremony of the Games was followed by more than 265 million Chinese viewers on an average on CCTV1 and CCTV5 combined.

Offering the widest view of the small screen, the yearly TV report offers not only a technical analysis but also provides expert interpretations of trends in the broadcast media.


Audience information

Created by Médiamétrie, Eurodata TV Worldwide distributes programming and audience information, based on its partnership with the national institutes operating people metre systems throughout the world.

Today, Eurodata TV Worldwide's database contains more than 2,000 channels in more than 80 countries and provides an exhaustive amount of daily programme information including content, production, international distribution and the audience levels for targeted programmes, all data emanating directly from the relevant authorised institute based in each country around the world.

These data provide a range of services, which help in the decision-making process of international professionals within the audio-visual world such as producers, distributors, broadcasters, copyright organisations, sponsors etc.

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