In the rating committee, they go on the attack: "There is no known country in the world where the government is involved in the field of rating measurement" - voila! Barangay

Shlomo Karai on Channel 14 (courtesy of Channel 14)

"We would be happy for the minister, who is a doctor of industrial engineering and management and has the tools to study the subject, to meet with the committee team and then propose solutions to the issue of rating measurement"

After the publication of the work plan of Communications Minister Shlomo Karai this week, comes the slap from reality - and from the players in the market.

As I recall, one of the main sections of the reform he presented concerned the method of measuring the ratings - a topic that involves quite a bit of control, emotions and of course big money for the channel owners.

Let's remind: the agreed upon method for measuring the viewership of the broadcast channels in Israel is that of a joint body - the Rating Committee - which works with the People Meter method supervised by the international company Kantar Media. The method has quite a few shortcomings, chief among them is the failure to reflect the (increasingly) viewing data in digital,

and An opening for possible manipulations as a result of the fact that the sample ultimately depends on reporting and the credibility of its participants. Karai stated this week that he would develop "a new rating model, which will be based, among other things, on new technologies and real data from the content providers, and will reflect reliable rating data for the benefit of the public and the advertising industry." He did not say How will the new ranking body be established and if it will be budgeted from state funds.

The ranking committee responds today (Thursday) to Walla!

Branch on the minister's intentions in the field of rating measurement.

"We would be happy for the minister, who is a doctor of industrial engineering and management and has the tools to study the subject, to meet with the committee team and then propose solutions to the issue of rating measurement.

"Most of the measurement in the world is carried out by three companies, Kantar, Nielsen and GFK - they all work with the same method. Any other measurement that does not have a panel behind it, will perhaps allow us to know how many viewers, but not who is watching - "a critical detail for understanding the viewing habits for the TV channels and advertisers ".

The committee prides itself on a panel of about 2,000 viewers (about 700 households), which is not based only on their self-reporting, but also on monitoring.

"The minister wants to base himself on reports from HOT and Yes that will say how many people watch them. This is an important figure but not satisfactory because as mentioned it is also important to know who is watching."

"At the beginning of 2022, MK Ofir Akunis came to the economy committee with a similar demand, following which they tasked the Knesset's research department to look into the issue.

"We expected the minister to talk to us and learn about the measurement methods in the world, as well as to study the work that was done in the Knesset just a year ago and found that in Israel they measure using the same method as the rest of the Western world."

The committee also adds that there is no known country in the world where the government is involved in the field of rating measurement.

"What is accepted in the world is that the measurement is carried out by the industry - the television channels and advertising agencies and not by the state."

TV (Photo: ShutterStock)

Between Bardogo and the World Cup final

In the meantime, a senior member of the committee dismisses the claims that have recently arisen about alleged manipulations of Channel 14 viewers in the viewing data.

The allegations began a few weeks ago, with the start of the channel's launch, and came up again this week at a plenary meeting of the committee with the channel managers.

The reason: a gap that appeared in the viewing data between thousands of viewers on Channel 14 and the viewing percentages, for several days.

According to the commission's data, the channel was watched by about 30 thousand viewers per rating point - data that characterizes family viewing of major events (World Cup, Eurovision, reality TV finals).

Not really the stuff that is broadcast regularly on the channel.

One of the estimates is that, compared to viewers of News 12 and 13, watching Channel 14 is characterized by "mobilization", which may be reflected in attempts to "circumvent" the system, either by misreporting the number of viewers at home, or by not reporting the viewer's identity.

However, the committee says that they are not aware of any incident associated with Channel 14. According to the source, "the system knows how to identify anomalies - and even 'freezes' every day about 30-40 houses in which the system detects abnormal behavior, and this is for a variety of reasons, mainly when some of the household members The viewers of one of the channels do not identify themselves. In such a situation the whole house is not counted. A house that does not identify itself for a long time can even be replaced."

The committee says that at the moment there is no difference between the average viewers per point between the commercial channels, which stand at a routine average of 26-27 thousand viewers per point.

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• Shlomo Karai