CSM Media Research at the annual SNPTV Conference in Paris

‘SNPTV, France's professional organization of major TV stations (TF1, France TV, M6, Canal +, Lagardere, TMC…) organized its 3rd"Spring University in Paris on June 24th.
The Conference attracted over 370 participants (+25% vs 2007), who attended 33 Conferences given by 45 speakers about the changes in the TV and Advertising panorama in France and across the world.

Here are some insights we would like to share with you

Advertisers, Consumers and TV: a complex relationship
For Harris Interactive, even for the Internet users, TV remains the only medium that can ensure anyone – both youths and elderly – its role of information and entertainment and TV remains the major source for purchase intentions of brands.
Advertisement on TV remains well perceived, stated Ipsos Media, with TV viewers finding TV spots attractive, creative, refreshing and above all useful for brands to make themselves known by the consumers.

The profile of TV Viewers is changing. One needs to know well the lifestyle of each TV viewer in order to understand how it reacts in front of TV : its values, preferences of programs, socio-demographic criteria. Targets of viewers are changing and new ones appear (TGI)
TNS Media Intelligence showed that Ad.Ex continued to grow to reach 7,5 Mds Euros or 31 % of the ad market in France. Major channels benefit from it reaping 73,7% of all the TV Adex.
Since 2003, the number of brands advertising on TV increased by 51% to 4 186 with over 30% of the advertisers of 2007 doing it for the 1st time.

TV is in the midst of a period of great changes
The increase in the number of TV stations as well as always more technology changed a lot the media panorama in France. With more households having HDTV, computers, 3G cell phones... TV stations have to adapt to new trends.
They developed more VOD services as well as Pay TV and cell TV. This (r)evolution put them ahead of most European channels. In France, 28,2%of housholds can access numerical TV vs 22 in the UE. ADSL is already at 9,7% v 1.8% in the UK meaning that 75% of ADSL TV subscribers are from France (IP Network / RTL Group)
According to Eurodata TV Worldwide, the more channels people can watch, the more they watch TV ! In Europe, in 2007, the households with the widest offer of TV channels increased their daily viewing time by 5 min. Simultaneously, the number of new programs increased in order to meet that new demand.
A study released by Publisuisse showed that the higher the program satisfaction, the higher the recognition of the TV ad and the better the image of the product.

How to measure accurately then ?
For media specialists, the changes in the broadcast situation means that the audience measurement needs to be adapted to take into account VOD, Cell TV, digital TV....
Médiamétrie mentioned that the best way is to take into account the new systems, equipments and usages of digital TV.
They expect ? New Generation ? measures to be fully operating by 2012.
Challenges are huge : defining new TAM indicators and adapt the measurement alongside a larger sampling. But when that will work, TV stations and advertisers will benefit from it with accurate data helping them reach their core targets.

The changes to come : example from Japan
In the new digital world, major changes will have to be made to develop advertising on TV.A good example is how Japan, a leading technology country is developing now its mobile phone TV. In 2008, Cell TV users can watch different programs than on their home TV. Cell TV offers them a program exclusivity.
The Japan cell market is much more developed than in France with close to 90 M users for a 3 G cell phone service.
There the mobile has transformed into a multi functions tool : banking credit card, portable TV, payment card... These changes provide TV stations with new opportunities to reach consumers as long as they know how to use this new media trend/usage.

International wide, the panorama is also changing quickly
Africa
Media in Africa has changed a lot recently. However, despite an increasing interest from media groups and advertisers for Africa, the industry is lacking strong reference studies, as well as regular audiences surveys, and suffers from research provided by too many different actors.
To answer that need, TNS Sofres and FTP International set up Africascope, Africa's 1st ever TV and radio audience measurement survey. With Médiamétrie, TNS set up specific surveys on the North African population living in France and Marocmétrie was set up in Morocco. The very first findings showed interesting insights such as an average 12,2 M viewers watching French TV at least once a day. With more research due to come, a better understanding of the market should enable to optimize the ad investment and create TV programs more fit to the local needs.
China
CSM Media Research and TNS Sport were invited to introduce the audience with a general presentation of the complex TV landscape in China with so many TV stations competing at national, provincial and local levels.
The audience was particularly surprised to hear that the China's ad market has now become the world's 3rd largest behind the USA and Japan but ahead of Germany and the UK. With a growth of 9% from 2006， China seems to be heading quickly towards the 2nd position, Japan.
As the eyes of the world are now turning onto Beijing, a long part of the presentation focused on the upcoming Olympics and the strong interest Chinese have in sports. Already this year, each Chinese has watched 97 minutes of Olympics programming....so expectations are high in China that the Beijing Games will be the best ever TV success in the country, and probably in the entire world.