TNS lands the Turkish TV Audience Measurement contract

Major win announced by TIAK

London – TIAK, the joint industry committee for television audience measurement in Turkey, announced that TNS has been awarded the contract for the provision of Television Audience Measurement. This prestigious four year contract, which will commence in 2011, follows a competitive pitch involving four bidders. The current contract is held by AGB Nielsen Media Research.

TNS will establish a 3,500 household reporting panel and provide TIAK with a TV meter system using TNS’s highly successful 5000 Series Modular PeopleMeter™. The 5000 Series is a proven audience measurement tool with 57,000 meters already deployed in 35,000 homes across the world. The contract will also see the Turkish industry adopting TNS’ InfoSys+. InfoSys is the world’s leading TV analysis software.

Keld Nielsen, Global Business Development Director, TNS Media Research commented “This latest success showcases TNS’ ability to combine our global audience measurement expertise with the media research skills of our local teams like TNS Turkey, one of the country’s most established research agencies.”

Arzu Kumar, Managing Director, TNS Turkey commented “We welcome TIAK’s decision to appoint TNS to this prestigious service with enthusiasm and excitement. We are fully committed to ensure the new industry currency exceeds the expectations of the Turkish media industry when it goes live in 2011.”

This latest win continues a period of unprecedented success for TNS Media Research, and follows TNS winning the UK BARB TV measurement service in 2008 and new TV audience measurement contract renewals in Denmark (2008), Norway (2008) and Slovakia (2009). TNS Media Research continues to lead the audience measurement industry using the latest techniques including return path data through its RaPiDView services, and PPMi technology which currently operates in six markets.

About TNS Media Research
TNS Media Research provides internet, TV, and radio audience measurement worldwide. The expertise and technology of this international operation supports audience services in over 30 countries, including Canada, China, Norway, Denmark, Russia, Spain, the UK and the US. TNS is at the forefront of the latest techniques in digital audience measurement, involving set-top box Return Path Data through its RaPiD View services.

TNS is part of Kantar, the world’s largest research, insight and consultancy networks. By uniting the diverse talents of more than 20 specialist companies – including the recently-acquired TNS – the group aims to become the pre-eminent provider of compelling and actionable insights for the global business community. Its 26,500 employees work across 80 countries and across the whole spectrum of research and consultancy disciplines, enabling the group to offer clients business insights at each and every point of the consumer cycle. The group’s services are employed by over half of the Fortune Top 500 companies.

For further information, please visit www.kantar.com

About TNS Turkey
TNS Turkey, with 35 years of accumulated experience in the research industry, is one of the oldest and the most experienced marketing research agencies in Turkey.TNS has played and continues to play an important role in the development phase of the research industry by introducing some of the very latest marketing research techniques to Turkey. As a full service agency, TNS Turkey serves across all sectors and maintains a very unique and exceptional position.

About TIAK
TIAK was founded in 1992 in Turkey as a joint industry committee for organising and auditing Television Audience Researches for the common use of the sector and establishing a collective unit for advertising and media agencies to reach the right target audience and to use their advertising budgets in the most efficient manner.

The committee consists of three representatives from Advertiser Association; three representatives from the Association of Advertising Agencies, three representatives from the IAA and seven representatives from the Association of TV Channels.