MUMBAI: The Arbeitsgemeinschaft Fernsehforschung (AGF), the partnership of the TV stations ARD, ProSiebenSat.1, RTL Media Group Germany and ZDF, has commissioned GfK to continue monitoring TV viewing in Germany, initially until 2018.

The contracts are worth around €130 million.

TV usage in German households will be measured via a panel of 5,000 reporting households using the GfK TC score measurement device, which will be supplemented by the GfK UMX measurement technology based on the principle of audio-matching. These data will be made available to TV stations, their advertising sales organisations, media agencies and advertisers every single day.

In addition to the introduction of the supplementary measurement technology GfK UMX, the system includes further innovations, which future-proof television audience measurement in Germany.

For example, by doing away with conurbations – also West Berlin and East Berlin have now been com-bined as Berlin – the regional distribution of the panel households has been optimised. The process for recruiting households to replace those that leave the panel is adjusted to reflect the diverging options for receiving TV.

Households and those who inhabit them now have the option of recording their changing personal characteristics online. The measurement of TV consumption in IPTV households was also introduced a few months ago.

The absolute anonymity of the panel members, the highest data security and the quality of the audience share and market share determining the German TV market remain central to the operation of the system. GfK has been operating the TV research system in Germany for the AGF since 1985 and this is consequently the sixth successive contractual period.