On July 18, the High Authority for Audiovisual Communication in Côte d'Ivoire issued a press release reminding the public that "pursuant to Law No. 2017-868 of December 27, 2017, on the legal framework for audiovisual communication, as amended by Law No. 2022-979 of December 20, 2022, it is responsible for measuring media audiences and certifying the results of studies carried out."
According to the regulator, audience measurements that have not been certified by its team cannot be publicly disclosed.
All stakeholders seem to have long agreed to rely on a common television audience measurement system that is recognized by all. You can read the interviews we conducted with the heads of the channels who addressed this subject: Closran Ngessan (Life TV), Ange Guei (NCI), and Michel Mutombo-Cartier (A+ Ivoire).
It should be noted that a few months ago, the HACA launched a call for tenders to select a research institute to implement a quality measurement system based on large sample sizes. This call for tenders is now in its final stages, with the selected institute due to be announced in the coming weeks.
Since nature abhors a vacuum, while waiting for this new audience measurement operator, Médiamétrie and KANTAR (Africascope) are continuing their measurements.
Médiamétrie, in particular, recently provided its subscribers with the audience figures for the second quarter of 2024, which place LIFE TV in second position behind A+ Ivoire, a topic on which the channel has communicated extensively. It is probably as a result of this intensive communication by Life TV that the HACA was prompted to publish its press release.
The HACA's clarification also comes after the announcement of an upcoming collaboration between Canal+ and Médiamétrie, which plan to offer audience measurement based on the programs watched by Canal+ subscribers using information collected by decoders.
It is clear that the existence of a single, robust, consensual audience measurement system certified by the public authorities will provide answers to the crucial questions raised by advertisers—who are responsible for ensuring the sustainability and development of the Ivorian audiovisual sector—and will limit the proliferation of parallel initiatives.
Following its warning, the HACA's decision on the choice of operator is now eagerly awaited.