The Czech viewer averages nearly 4 hours of TV time a day. The project of TV audience measurement has measured 769,000 programmes on 90 channels over the past year. In terms of extent, the Czech Republic surpasses countries with even longer tradition of TV measurement
23. 6. 2023
Every year on 2nd June, Peoplemeter Day is traditionally celebrated. It commemorates the start of the first ever TV audience electronic measurement which started in 1997 in the Czech Republic under the auspices of the Association of Television Organizations.
The project of TV audience measurement has undergone numerous changes and technical innovations over its 26-year history. In its current form, the official name is the Project of Cross-Platform Electronic TV Audience and Content Consumption Measurement (PCEM). Apart from traditional linear TV watching, it also brings data on delayed viewing, video content viewing on digital platforms as well as extensive data from supporting research on the behaviour of Czech population – Continual/Introductory research (KV/ZV) and LifeStyle Survey (LSS). The project has been running its 21st year already, implemented in its full extent by Nielsen company (from 2002 as Mediaresearch, later Nielsen Admosphere) for the Association of Television Organizations.
As of 1 June, Michal Jordan became the managing director of the Association of Television Organizations. He replaced Vlasta Roškotová, who had been the head of the ATO for 12 years.
CEOs of the ATO’s regular members with the preceding managing director and the new one, from left to right: Marek Singer (Prima), Petr Dvořák (ČT), Petr Chajda (ASMEA), Vlasta Roškotová, Daniel Grunt (Nova), Michal Jordan, Štěpán Wolde (Óčko), Michaela Suráková (Atmedia), Ivan Mikula (Televize Seznam)
What day might be more suitable than Peoplemeter Day to look through some interesting numbers brought by various parts of this unique Czech project?
To start with, it is fitting to observe that the Czech project of TV audience measurement is of very high quality. It is the most extensive media research in the Czech Republic. Its peoplemeter parts (the so-called PEM TV, i.e. audience measurement on TV sets) involves a representative sample of 1,900 Czech households, which corresponds to 4,350 individuals older than 4 years. In terms of the proportion to total Czech population, the panel surpasses many countries of the world with substantially longer traditions of audience measurement. In its digital part (the so-called PEM D), the project provides data on video content viewing on web sites and in applications of media included in the project, be it on a computer, laptop, tablet, mobile phone, or through HbbTV on smart TV (through the “red button”).
Data Fun Facts
Besides programme viewing rates, the measurement tells us e.g. that in 2022, the average Czech viewer aged 15+ spent 3 hours and 44 minutes daily watching television broadcast.
Weekly, 83 % of 15+ Czechs watch TV.In the past year (i.e. in the period from the last Peoplemeter Day in 2022 up to today), nearly 769,000 programmes longer than two minutes have been broadcasted. Ninety independent TV channels have been measured and reported.
Data in the digital part of the project further show that over the past year, users have spent cumulatively almost 20 thousand years viewing time on webs and applications of involved media. This corresponds to 249 average human lives (considering average lifetime of 80 years).
Users spent most time watching online on computers, followed by smart TV. The third longest time was spent by watching video content of involved media on smartphones and by far the shortest time on tablets.
The above-mentioned Continual Survey (kontinuální výzkum, KV) aiming at monitoring changes in the characteristics of TV population also regularly brings interesting information. It is carried out every year on the sample of at least 12,000 households. For example, the last annual results show that the prevailing way of receiving TV channels in the Czech Republic continues to be terrestrial digital broadcasting. According to the 2022 results, 56 % of TV households use this model, some of them combined with other types of reception. Currently, 37 % of Czech households report cable or IPTV (“internet”) broadcast reception, while satellite broadcast holds the third position (18 %).
The LifeStyle Survey (LSS) research supplies the project of TV audience measurement with information on the respondents’ lifestyle and media behaviour. The 2022 data e.g. show that the most popular daily media activity remains to be viewing live TV broadcast (69 % of daily watchers). Web browsing, searching and writing/reading e-mails take the second place with 59 % of people doing these activities daily. Social networks follow on the third position with 47 % of daily users.
“Peoplemeter Day is at present not only the celebration of linear TV electronic measurement through peoplemeters, but it celebrates the project that we carry out for the ATO in its full extent. It basically also promotes the technological advances that we strive to react to quickly – in the past, for example, by adding the option of data reporting in real time, or in 2018 by starting digital viewing reporting. The substantial core of the whole project, however, continues to be the nearly 2,000 Czech households that dutifully record their viewing on peoplemeters. We owe them a big thank you for participating in our panel,” says Petr Matyáštík, Market Leader for Nielsen.
„Television as a mediatype is undergoing continuous technological change as the TV audience increasingly uses new ways of viewing set by modern trends. The TV audience measurement project is developing along with the media type and continues to guarantee lasting quality for the television and media market that can be relied on. I believe that thanks to the first-rate work of the implementer and cooperative environment on the market, the project is going to remain an anchort in our media world,” concludes Michal Jordan, the managing director of the Association of Television Organization.