Taylor Nelson To Use New Audience Measurement Technology

Global marketing information and research group, Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS), has signed an agreement to use the new audience measurement technology developed by US group Arbitron. TNS will use Arbitron’s audio-encoding systems in its measurement of television audiences in the UK.

Taylor Nelson, which supplies the TV viewing data to BARB, will use Arbitron’s technology in its TARiS PeopleMeters which measure viewing audiences in the UK and around the world. The technology will be particularly crucial in the measurement of audiences across a growing number of television channels, as digital, multi-channel TV continues to expand. The hardware detects inaudible identification signals which broadcasters can embed in their transmissions.

Taylor Nelson’s director, Mike Kirkham, explains: “Over the next two decades, research companies around the world will need to measure audiences in an increasingly complex environment of analogue and digital TV receivers… Arbitron has a superior and proven encoding system that’s designed specifically for broadcast audience measurement.”

Arbitron is also trialling its own Portable People Meter (PPM), which uses the same technology (see New Audience Measurement Technology Testing Enters Next Phase), to record television and radio audiences in Manchester. This study is being conducted with Continental Research.

Taylor Nelson Sofres: 0181 967 0007