The Federal Government has commenced the first phase of a national Audience Measurement System in Lagos, with selected households set to receive up to 36GB of monthly data as an incentive for participating in the television audience measurement programme.
The initiative is being spearheaded by the National Broadcasting Commission under the FreeTV brand and was announced at a press briefing in Lagos on Tuesday.
The new system is designed to replace Nigeria’s traditional diary-based approach to measuring television audiences with Peoplemeter technology that automatically captures viewing patterns in participating households.
Under the programme, selected homes will have Peoplemeter devices and data-enabled routers installed to track television consumption and securely transmit viewing information daily to a central data centre.
Speaking at the briefing, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, said the initiative was part of efforts to modernise Nigeria’s broadcasting ecosystem and build a more credible system for understanding audience behaviour.
Idris, who was represented by the Director-General of the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria, Olalekan Fadolapo, said reliable audience data could strengthen investor confidence and support the production of quality Nigerian content.
“A reliable audience measurement system can strengthen investor confidence, support the production of quality Nigerian content and create opportunities across our media and creative industries,” he said.
He described broadcasting as an important economic ecosystem supporting journalists, producers, filmmakers, actors, advertisers, technology providers and other professionals.
“At its core, AMS helps us better understand our audiences: who is watching, what they are watching, and when they are watching. This information is vital to broadcasters, advertisers, content producers, investors and regulators,” he added.
Patrick Gomes, Chief Operating Officer of First Media and Entertainment Integrated Limited GARB, the technical partner implementing the system, said participating households would initially receive 36GB of data monthly.
He said the incentive, currently valued at about N11,000 per month, was intended to support the internet requirements of households participating in the programme.
Gomes added that a quarterly incentive system would also be introduced based on the level of compliance by participating households.
“So we do not just look at monthly data, but we also want to add a quarterly incentive for the level of compliance they deliver,” he said.
According to Gomes, households that consistently comply with the requirements of the audience measurement system would receive higher quarterly incentives, while those with lower compliance levels would receive proportionately lower rewards.
The Lagos rollout follows technical testing and a proof-of-concept pilot conducted in selected homes. Results from the pilot were presented to stakeholders in Abuja during the second quarter of 2024.
The households being recruited for the programme are being selected from Nigeria’s first nationwide Establishment Survey, completed in the first half of 2023.
The survey covered about 60,000 households across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, including 7,000 households in Lagos.
Director-General of the NBC, Charles Ebuebu, described the deployment as a major step for Nigeria’s broadcasting industry.
“The rollout of this Audience Measurement System marks a transformative milestone for Nigeria’s broadcasting ecosystem,” Ebuebu said.
He said the system would provide more accurate and passive tracking of audience consumption while addressing longstanding concerns about transparency within Nigeria’s advertising and broadcasting markets.
Gomes said the Lagos deployment represented the first phase of the national rollout.
The second phase will extend the system to Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano, while a third phase is expected to expand coverage to other major media markets across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones.
