On 4 August, the South African Advertising Research Foundation (SAARF) Television Audience Measurement Survey (TAMS) Council will implement the All Media & Products Survey (AMPS) 2008a universe adjustments to the TAMS panel.
The following three adjustments to the TAMS panel will be made concurrently: AMPS 08a universes will be applied to existing TAMS data; the variables of the Random Iterative Method (RIM) weighting methodology will change, with the collapse of the M-Net and DStv variables into a single Pay RIM; and the TAMS panel will be updated according to the AMPS 2008a LSM variables.
Key to the updates will be the upward adjustment of the number of Compact bouquet households in the DStv portion of the panel. These adjustments will impact on both
M-Net- and DStv-buying target markets and media planning from the 4th August.
Oracle Airtime Sales’ (OATS) Head of Research and Strategy, Brenda Wortley expects the DStv audiences (measured against a DStv filter) to show an average 30% increase in audience in 000s. “However, as a result of the increasing fragmentation on the platform we expect an average 9% decline in ARs. Regarding M-Net, we expect very little change in audiences when measuring performance against LSM 8-10 or Hi Income target markets.
“We therefore recommend using standard downweights for all future planning periods post August on M-Net, taking into consideration the strong India Premier League cricket audiences in April and May if used in source periods. For DStv we recommend applying additional 9% downweight to (DStv filtered) ARs. However, when planning on DStv (against a DStv target market), cognisance must be taken of the growing DStv subscriber base and the fact that on average 30% more people.”
