Leslie Adams | Sales Director | Reach Africa | mail me |
South Africa is on the brink of one of the most game-changing moves in media measurement in decades. In September, the Broadcast Research Council of South Africa (BRC) announced that it had appointed GfK, an NIQ company, to design and deploy the next-generation Total Video Measurement service.
This will replace the current Total Audience Measurement Survey (TAMS), as audience measurement and data analytics company Nielsen simultaneously exits South Africa.
While this evolution is somewhat overdue, it is important to recognise the trust and consistency Nielsen brought to the industry. Nielsen established an uninterrupted benchmark for television measurement, which helped media planners and buyers offer their brands an indication of Return On Investment (ROI).
Even if the data was arguably flawed or incomplete, without this universal yardstick, the medium would have faced the same challenges as radio. The Radio Audience Measurement Survey (RAMS) has been on pause since 2023. This pause has meant less granular insights, slower campaign optimisation and reduced trust and accountability in the medium across the industry.
A significant evolution for advertisers
With the introduction of Total Video Measurement, advertisers are about to experience a significant evolution. The market is moving towards a single currency that reflects how South Africans really watch content today.
The future of TV is digital, and this new tool is not just a step forward but also a chance for South African television to lead the way. This system adopts the best of digital, with rich, granular, individual-level insights. At the same time, it retains the mass reach and impact of traditional TV. The future of TV is digital, but it will combine scale with depth.
Streaming boom and shifting habits
This evolution comes at a critical time, as streaming in South Africa continues to grow. Around 15.6 million South Africans now stream content compared to 10.8 million who subscribe to pay-TV.
One in four South Africans is streaming, with heavy streamers averaging five hours of daily viewing. For brands, the question is no longer whether audiences are watching. Instead, the questions are where, how and why they are watching.
The answers lie in knowing the right metrics. The future of TV is digital, and measurement must evolve accordingly.
Preparing for richer measurement
Richer measurement enhances the ability to determine campaign success. With better data, brands can understand not only how many people saw an ad, but also who they are, how they engaged and what drove them to act.
As I often remind clients, what if broadcasters had access to the same level of data as Netflix? Campaign planning and performance measurement would shift from blunt reach figures to nuanced insights. This shift makes every Rand work harder.
If content is the vehicle, data is the compass
Are YouTube shorts still considered “TV”? What about TikTok clips, micro-dramas, or high-end streaming series? The debate over what counts as TV misses the point.
Audiences don’t care about the definition of TV. They care about the experience of watching. Watching video across multiple screens is now the new reality. If you can measure across those screens with a single currency, the conversation around what TV is becomes irrelevant.
It is about where the audience places its most valuable attention at any given time. For brands, content is the vehicle, but data is the compass.
Whether your audience is leaning back on the couch with a long-form drama or leaning in on their phone for a short clip, what matters is that you can track, compare and plan across platforms in a unified way.
The metrics that matter
So, what should advertisers focus on as we enter the new era of measurement?
Four things stand out:
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Audience relevance
Know exactly who you are targeting, and why they matter to your brand. Wasted reach is wasted spend. Precision ensures your message lands with the right people.
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Engagement and community
Measure beyond impressions. Look at shareability, conversations, completion rates and dwell time. True impact is about being seen, shared, discussed and remembered.
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Adaptability
Ensure your campaigns are designed for multi-screen, multi-format and on-demand consumption. As audiences move fluidly across screens, your brand must move with them.
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Brand fit
Integrations must feel authentic and natural. This builds trust and equity rather than irritation or rejection.
South Africa’s fragmented landscape makes these metrics even more important. The mix of rural and metro audiences, varying technologies and uneven connectivity requires careful measurement.
A crossroads for advertisers
The biggest challenge is not the technology itself, but solving how we measure one-to-one digital media versus one-to-many broadcast media. Once solved, the “messy soup” of disparate datasets will become a clear picture of audience behaviour.
The media industry now stands at a crossroads. With new measurement tools on the horizon, advertisers have a rare opportunity to plan and prepare. They must decide what they want success to look like in a converged TV and streaming world.
The bottom line is clear. Advertisers must know the metrics that matter to their brands. The more robust the data, the better we can understand audiences. The better we understand audiences, the better equipped brands will be to meet them with relevance, resonance and impact.
