Thursday, July 28, 2011

BREAKING. South African television viewership in total could actually be higher ... if the content broadcasters are showing weren't so crap.


A leading and authoritative industry expert tracking television viewership in South Africa says combined total television viewership in South Africa could actually be higher - if the TV content broadcasters are showing wasn't so crap.

Dr Chris Eyre, managing director of AGB Nielsen Media Research spoke this morning and addressed a group of journalists, ad buyers, media planners as well as media and marketing executives about the new TAMS universe of the South African Advertising Research Foundation (Saarf). Saarf is the leading organisation in South Africa tracking television viewership in South Africa and will temporarily remove PVR households from the audience universe from August.

ALSO READ: PVR viewership removed from TAMS from August, viewership of M-Net, kykNET and SuperSport will appear lower.

The authoritative and widely-respected Dr Chris Eyre suggested that general total television viewership in South Africa could actually be higher than what it is currently but that less viewers are watching because the content that broadcasters and TV channels are showing South African viewers are substandard and not of a good quality. He was very direct and blunt in his assessment of why television viewership in South Africa could actually be higher - but isn't.

''Data suggest that content is approaching ... crap,'' dr Chris Eyre said. ''Television is going up in the South African context all the time, but it could actually be higher.'' He suggested that low quality TV content is to blame for the growth not being higher. ''You have to factor in the quality of the content South African viewers are getting to view.''