Nielsen: China to Become World's Second Largest TV Ad
Market by 2010
Nielsen Media Research, one of the world's leading media
firms, expects double digit growth in the China market,
and is boosting its TV rating coverage from 11 cities
in China to more than 100 cities by 2005. Nielsen expects
the China market to overtake Japan by 2010.
Currently, China is the world's third largest TV ad market.
Nielsen is best known for the "people meter",
which measures TV viewing patterns and helps the company
to derive detailed consumer behavior. Currently, people
meters are installed in 3,300 households in 11 mainland
cities. Following the expansion, which is expected to
be completed within two years, people meters will be installed
in another 700 TV households, while another 21,000 households
will use a diary for recording what they watch on TV.
There are 340 million TV households in China now.
China's ad market in 2002 was worth $10 billion. With
the upcoming 2008 Beijing Olympics, advertisers are jockeying
into position to tap into what is the last, fast-growing
consumer market. Nielsen expects the China ad market to
grow by double digits every year in the next decade.
Under World Trade Organization (WTO) guidelines, which
China joined in November 2001, China is required to give
equal access to China's advertising market to foreign
companies.
Media giants News Corp. and AOL Time Warner have landed
broadcast rights in Guangdong province, across the border
from Hong Kong, which is a first for foreign companies
in China. This is seen as a test-bed, both for the Chinese
government and the two companies. If it is successful,
it is likely that the Chinese government will open the
market more.
TV viewers in Guangdong province are able to view spill-over
broadcasts from Hong Kong. As the line between Hong Kong
and Guangdong blurs, TV media buyers in Hong Kong are
buying TV slots in order to reach Guangdong viewers.
As China's economy has developed, TV viewer tastes have
changed as well. In the early 90s, most TV advertising
was dominated by commercials for alcohol. In the mid 90s,
this changed to VCDs (video compact disks). Now, advertising
is dominated by health-related products.
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