MEDIA DIRECTORS COUNCIL OFFERS ADVICE ON BUYING AIRTIME
By Adnews Staff
The Vancouver Media Directors Council has some advice for agencies buying TV airtime on the city's TV stations. The organization has made the announcement because it believes there will be a shift in the way TV commercial airtime is bought and sold in Vancouver this fall because: Nielsen Media's electronic measurement service will be fully functional for six months and Bureau of Broadcast Measurement is set to launch its electronic service in September. The council is urging Vancouver telecasters to sell commercial inventory in fall programming based on ratings estimates that reflect existing metered data where possible, or with the full understanding that many programs experience significant audience shortfalls as recorded by electronic measurement. Television advertisers should support this initiative because it will ensure that the ramifications of any audience shortfalls or gains will be shared equally by both telecasters and advertisers during the transition period. Actual viewing habits within demographic target groups will not change, however, it is expected that there will be more accurate audience reports, making ratings estimates and cost efficiencies shift. Media practitioners should establish new guidelines on television weight levels, reach and frequency and establish multi-week effectiveness models based on the new measurement tools. The goal of this move would be to ensure that costs and budgets are allocated correctly in light of the new measurement tool. In addition, BBM should stop diary measurement in Vancouver, all Vancouver TV buys must be negotiated and measured based on electronic data from either BBM or Nielsen by January 1999.