To the point: Blue-eyed into the debacle
In 2011, Mediapulse AG decided to replace the aging Telecontrol measurement system—originally invented by Matthias Steinmann, the long-time head of research at SRG, and now owned by the market research firm GfK—with a different system. This new system was also intended to be able to track new forms of television viewing, such as time-shifted viewing and TV viewing on computers.
GfK came away empty-handed with the contract, which was awarded to the British company Kantar. According to its own information, Kantar Media is the global leader in media measurement and measures TV ratings in over 40 countries. The slogan "local understanding, global knowledge", which Kantar Switzerland adopted, also sounded trustworthy. Perhaps too trusting, because Mediapulse decided to collect the TV data twice for just one month. Firstly for cost reasons and secondly for fear of having two different currencies.
Kantar began recruiting a completely new viewer panel. The first data collection started in December. At the beginning, there were a few errors in the data processing, some of which were beyond the control of Kantar or Mediapulse. These are things that are actually normal for such a large project. Mediapulse remained optimistic. After further delays and a canceled press conference, the time had finally come. The figures were to be published on February 18.
But then everything turned out quite differently. Chairman Marco de Stoppani had to announce that certain customers (broadcasters and marketers) had major concerns about the plausibility of the results. The differences to the 2012 data were considerable. The clients therefore demanded an external expert opinion. Until this new expertise is available, which should be the case at the beginning of March, Mediapulse is not allowed to publish any figures. De Stoppani did not want to say who had exerted pressure. He only said that it had come "from various sources, verbally and in writing, and also from lawyers". Legal action had not yet been taken, but the prospect had been held out. The Board of Directors buckled and decided unanimously that no figures could be published until the new expert report was available. The broadcasters and marketers will receive them for study, but the agencies will have to practice flying blind.
The credibility of research has suffered and the new figures will hardly be accepted after this debacle. It's going to be fun!
Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief
[email protected]
