Abstract:

This paper begins with a very brief summary of new developments in the television medium and their effect on the likely stracture of the television market going into the next century from the perspective of the viewer and the advertising industry. We explore a hypothesis that by the year 2010 at least, the shape of the television market will be very different. Thus, new challenges will face the market research industry in its continuing attempts to satisfy the needs and requirements of European broadcasters and advertisers. Whilst it is now clear that new metering technology is required to cope with these technical developments in the television medium, we argue that the various parties that currently fund television audience research will have increasingly divergent measurement requirements in future. Some may also have new means at their disposal whereby they can directly satisfy the advertising industry, who, in its turn, may have different reporting needs and requirements in future. The paper then considers the size of the current market for television audience measurement research in Europe and asks whether sufficient funds will be still be available in the future to cover the necessary research and development into new audience measurement technology. The paper concludes with some hints for a new audience measurement system in which there is a supplementary role for a basic utility meter.