Work in progress: A single currency to measure TV in Malaysia likely soon

A singular TV measurement has always been an issue for the local industry. In a landmark announcement, Media Specialists Association is moving to resolve the issue.President of the association Bala Pomaleh told local media that the association is in discussion with various parties and hopes to resolve this dilemma soon.“The MSA is working very closely with the Malaysian Advertisers Association(MAA) as well as Astro and Media Prima Group (and their respective research partners) to revert to a single currency delivery. Details are being discussed and we should have a clear way forward on this very soon,” he said.Previously, he explained, ratings for free-to-air (FTA) TV and Astro were both measured by Nielsen via Peoplemeter, giving us one reporting currency. Now with Astro exclusively reporting via research firm Kantar Media, the industry has two systems.“This causes many issues for agencies and advertisers who need to evaluate the combined effect of buying Astro and FTA,” he said.Pomaleh told A+M a joint statement on the announcement is due soon.The state of TV measurement in next door nerightbours Singapore is no different. Last year, StarHub partnered with Nielsen to launch StarHub SmarTAM, a TV audience measurement system using Return Path Data (RPD) technology.This was soon after Singtel Advertising and Kantar Media, announced a similar deal introducing RPD technology in Singapore as part of SingTel mio TV’s new television audience measurement platform.