Nuremberg, 28 January 2014 – GfK has signed a contract with SAUDI MEDIA MEASUREMENT COMPANY (SMMC) to introduce a new television audience measurement (TAM) service in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. GfK will set up the first-ever electronic TAM system in the country, based on a panel of 2,000 households which will be equipped with cutting-edge technology called ‘Universal Metering System.’ The initial contract has a five-year timespan with data delivery expected to start in 2015.
GfK was commissioned by SMMC to build a new system for television audience measurement in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The state-of-the-art offering will deliver a representative picture of live and time-shifted TV consumption. GfK also provides a software solution named ‘Evogenius’ which allows rating analysis, as well as advertisement monitoring and planning. For this purpose, the broadcasted programs and advertising spots in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will constantly be tracked to enable in-depth and accurate analysis.
Mr. Mohamed Al Fal, CEO of SMMC, explained: “SMMC is a Saudi Company recently established by regional Saudi communication entities with the objective to introduce the first ever electronic TV rating system in the country using international standards. The focus of SMMC will be to support and enhance the media research to reach a single currency status in the Saudi market.”
Matthias Hartmann, CEO of GfK, commented: “This contract is a major milestone for GfK in becoming the leading television ratings provider in the Arabic world. We are proud to bring our 40 years of experience in audience measurement to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and to introduce our innovative electronic solutions in this important country.”
To start the project, GfK will organize a nationwide representative ‘establishment survey’ to obtain accurate figures of the country’s population in terms of demography, household compositions and television equipment. Based on this information, GfK will then set up a panel comprising 2,000 households, spread over the entire territory of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
GfK offers TV rating services in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Lebanon, the Netherlands and Portugal and just signed a major contract in Brazil. The company also measures radio audience in several countries including Australia, Austria, Switzerland, Ukraine, Belgium and the Netherlands and conducts national print readership surveys among others in USA, Lebanon and Kuwait.
About GfK
GfK is one of the world’s largest research companies, with almost 13,000 experts working to discover new insights into the way people live, think and shop, in over 100 markets, every day. GfK is constantly innovating and using the latest technologies and the smartest methodologies to give its clients the clearest understanding of the most important people in the world: their customers. In 2012, GfK’s sales amounted to €1.51 billion.
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