The Media Agency Association of Thailand (MAAT) is shrugging off decisions by two major channels not to switch to the Media Research Bureau (MRB), its non-profit organisation set up to supervise ratings for the country's 24 digital TV channels.
SET-listed RS Plc, operator of Channel 8, yesterday announced that its board had decided not to use the ratings service to be provided by the MAAT and MRB in 2017.
Earlier, it was reported that Channel 7, the most watched channel among Thais, would not change because it is not an MRB member.
The MRB was established by major media agencies that are MAAT members and by some digital TV operators. They wanted changes after Nielsen Co (Thailand) had dominated the TV ratings service for three decades. Some even questioned Nielsen's ratings accuracy because it has no competitors.
However, MAAT chairwoman Wannee Ruttanaphon is still confident it can attract most digital TV channels to use its services from the MRB, which claims that its audience ratings measurement is totally different from that of Nielsen.
The MRB's system will provide in-depth details about audience behaviour that digital TV operators can compare with their competitors, she said.
"It's good for digital TV channels to know their own ratings and the others so that they can improve amid robust competition in TV industry," she said.
However, new channels such as PPTV, Spring News and Amarin TV have not decided whether to use the MRB ratings service.
RS said in a statement that after careful study it found the MRB's service cost too high compared with Nielsen and the unfixed rate would cause many problems in managing its budget.
The requirement for a five-year contract was seen as quite long by RS.
"Our company still counts on Nielsen as it is an independent company with no stake in the business and its expansion of its sampling size to 3,000 households by the end of 2017 will enhance ratings accuracy," said RS chief operating officer Pornpan Techarungchaikul.
Nielsen will kick off its multi-screen ratings system next year to serve the changing behaviour of audiences who watch TV on many screens.
An industry source said the MRB audience ratings system would be highly accurate due to its larger sampling size of 30,000 respondents.
The MRB chose London-based Kantar Media to conduct its TV ratings. Next year Kantar will carry out an establishment survey across the country and install rating panels at 3,000 households.
The real ratings service will kick off in 2017 and the sampling size will be reduced to 20,000 respondents.