The Media Council of Kenya joined Internews for a media dialogue on Audience Rating Systems, Advertising Research and Government Advertising Agency geared towards increasing media capacity, sustainability and strengthening the information ecosystem.
The forum in Nairobi sought to investigate more opportunities for the media to work best with stakeholders in increasing revenue opportunities that can support its existence.
Director of the Government Advertising Agency (GAA) Mr Gwaro Ogaro commended various stakeholders for participating in the dialogue that seeks to highlight business opportunities for media businesses at the Government advertising wing. He further urged them to organise more forums and invite state agencies and corporations.
“There is a need to organise more forums where state agencies can be represented to give opportunities to the various media houses”, said Mr Ogaro who is also a member of the Media Council of Kenya Board.
Media companies were urged to incorporate ways to make their role essential for the public and private sectors in the society to support the sustainability of a robust media eco-system.
“In order to speed up media viability, independent media and their stakeholders need to understand context, capabilities and performances and create more frameworks”, stated Mr Jacob Lambert, Senior Director of Media Business at Internews.
Digital Broadcasters Association (DBA) chair Mr Joel Waweru, noted that the diverse media environment, including the digital space, has brought out the emerging need to have a dialogue to invest and set up credible audience system that reflects the reality on the ground. He further noted that the current rating system on which advertisers and agencies base their media buying decision had lost the market’s trust.
“We need an existing established survey showing consumption in terms of content and real time data”, said Mr Waweru.
General Manager of the Kenya Audience Research Foundation (KARF) Mr James Thiongo, stated that some gaps they experience in coordinating audience research were on delivery of audience data because of outdated establishment survey, passive data collection system and the cost of financing audience research is high due to the prohibitive costs of technology and panel management.
“The media is the primary means through which public opinion is shaped and guided. For this reason, the industry requires a positive and efficient system to track audience in real time”, stated Mr Thiongo.