China’s ad elite on tampering with TV ratings

“This issue is not a new one,” says Joanna Vonfelkerzam, Asia-Pacific head of research for Starcom Media Worldwide. “But it has a serious impact on our client’s business, from their investments to their business forecasts. It’s an issue that advertisers and agencies alike want resolved immediately.”

Warren Hui, CEO of Vivaki Exchange, says that rumours about the manipulation of TV rating numbers had been circulating for about three years in individual markets. “It is more common in cities like Hangzhou and Nanjing, as their media ad cost are more expensive and there is more competition,” he explains.

Although it is unclear who the offenders are, Sunil Jaryal, director of Insights and Research, UM China, points out that some markets have seen the majority of malpractices coming from media owners.

Significant advertising dollars are at stake. In China, total media ad spend last year was reported at Rmb 91 billion (US$13 billion) according to Nielsen. Nearly 75 per cent of this spend was allocated to TV stations.

“The needle of suspicion points towards TV media owners, as it is very tempting for them,” says Jaryal. “TV channels are more likely to be involved in inflating their ratings particularly for prime time drama programmes.”

TV tampering is not the only headache for media agencies and advertisers. Other mediums also pose a challenge: online media agencies have to deal with click frauds and print medium has the problem of inflated circulation figures.

“Unfortunately, these things have happened in other markets in Asia,” says Jaryal. “There was a similar incident with one of the ratings service providers in India.”

Zoe Tan, chief strategic officer at Zoe Tan Consulting, who used to work for ZenithOptimedia China on TV rating media, points out that agencies often sanction themselves. “They refrain from alerting their clients about the faulty data, and put pressure on suppliers to do a better job,” she says. “If clients found out, they would question the adspend legitimacy which is spearheaded by the agencies.”

She adds that CSM is trying very hard to rectify this situation, but there is no guarantee that it can stop TV stations influencing panel members.

Moreover, as Steven Chang, CEO of ZenithOptimedia Greater China points out, because CSM Media Research has the monopoly in conducting TV viewership ratings in China, “there is a lack of a bench mark.”

Vonfelkerzam suggests the issue can be rectified in three ways. Firstly, media agencies need to work together to establish early detection audits and systems. Secondly, the corporate legal system needs to be enforced to deter such actions and bring the guilty to justice.  And thirdly, there needs to be a stronger sense of pride in being a panelist, so fewer members are tempted to be dishonest and more of them feel confident enough to report any attempted recruitment.  

“Without an alignment of industry and Government who are determined to take resolute action, this will be a drawn out process that will continue to plague our industry in China, and will tarnish China’s reputation as a serious player on the international stage - a reputation that most in the industry have worked hard to build,” Vonfelkerzam says.

However, an industry source cautioned that Government involvement would mean a bureaucratic component, as the Government-affiliated office would want to be in control.

Tan believes that China would benefit from having a third party organisation, as Taiwan and Hong Kong do, to periodically audit its panel to uncover any suspicious or unusual patterns. Only then, she says, can the industry be assured of the quality and transparency of the data.

This article was originally published in the 29 July 2010 issue of Media.