This year sees TAM Ireland’s contract with Nielsen in it’s 7th year and it has recently been extended to run up to August 2021.
At this point it is timely to perform a full audit of the service, examining every aspect of the measurement process and ensuring that it is of good practice and in-line with international standards.
To this end we employed the services of 3 highly respected industry experts:
Roger Gane – A research consultant with vast experience including heading up the company that conducted the Establishment Survey for BARB for many years.
Harry Holland – A systems auditor with engineering expertise and a deep understanding of metering technology
Robert Ruud (3M3A) – Was central in introducing TAM and PPM meters in Norway and has extensive expertise in TAM audits consulting in over 15 countries.
These experts undertook a forensic examination of the following:
The Establishment Survey and panel representativeness
The physical capturing of the data via the meter
The data collection/processing, quality controls and client service
And a statistical review, including analysis of the generating of ratings
The principle auditor Roger Gane in his final report stated that:
“Our overall conclusion is that Nielsen is operating TAM Ireland’s audience measurement service to a high and consistent standard.”
“We did not identify any major areas where the service fell below the expected level;.
I confirm that the overall impression gained of is of a marked improvement since (the last audit in) 2013 resulting in a generally well-controlled TAM service.”
The statistical review was performed by 3M3A – after a thorough examination of the ratings calculation process they stated that:
“Preparing the data files and calculating the data for household members and guests have shown a very high degree of consistency with the data calculated by Arianna”.
“The data samples and the calculated universe and target sizes match.”
The board of TAM Ireland were very pleased with the outcome of the audit. Jill McGrath CEO of TAM Ireland said “The positive audit is a big endorsement of the service, and a measure of the hard work put in by both Nielsen and the TAM Ireland Technical Committee to ensure the delivery of a high quality service we can be proud of. We look forward to the remainder of the contract period with great confidence in the TV measurement system”