Problems with the measurement of the TV audience in Bosnia and Herzegovina continue. The company Audience Measurement, which the Institute for Metrology of Bosnia and Herzegovina completely illegally authorized as the only company able to measure the viewership of TV programs in Bosnia and Herzegovina (since it’s the only one that has a laboratory for servicing people meters and other equipment, so it can issue certificates of equipment soundness to itself), continues to violate the rules of fair business, Ekrem Dupanović writes for Media Marketing.

On 30 March 2016, the Competition Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina fined Audience Measurement (AM) 30,000 BAM due to a number of irregularities in the conduct of their business. AM was supposed to pay this sum within eight days, but has not done so to this day, three and a half months later, so the Competition Council has initiated the procedure of enforced collection.

On 15 June nine broadcasters and media agencies (BHRT, TV Hayat, Pink BH, Program Plus, Direct Media, Aquarius, Universal Media, Fabrika and Media House) sent AM a request for an audit of audience measurement, but it’s a month later and they still haven’t received any response. Therefore, on 13 July (in the meantime, the list of TV stations and agencies was joined by ATV Banja Luka), they sent another letter to AM requesting that that they be answered. In their request they relied on current practice everywhere in the world – that research users have the right to seek an audit and that such a request has never been denied anywhere or to anyone. Nowhere except in BiH. Ten broadcasters and media agencies, which regularly pay for research, asked the AM to provide them with data on the number of set devices in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the number of covered households, the number of devices per region and sub regions the national structure of the regions and sub regions and on how the signal is received – terrestrial, cable or satellite.

In the proceedings conducted before the Competition Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina in March, AM claimed that it had a contract on measurements with Nielsen, one of the world’s leading TV ratings measurement companies, and that all their research was conducted according to the high standards of this international research firm. When the Competition Council requested to see this contract with Nielsen, AM failed to provide it on the grounds that it was written in English and was very extensive, so it would be difficult to translate! Since BH broadcasters couldn’t get this evidence from AM, Elvir Švrakić, director of Hayat TV, and Nataša Tešanović, director of ATV Banja Luka, went to Zagreb to meet with Nielsen representatives. They had sold the devices and software to AM and their current business relationship is reduced to the maintenance of the license, so the Nielsen reps asked the guests from Sarajevo to inform them of any use of the name Nielsen in AM’s communications, because they are not entitled to it. Nielsen has promised, among other things, all help and support in their contact with companies in the world dealing with audit, and if the result is negative for AM, Nielsen will take all legal action necessary to address the problem. The meeting was attended by the head of the legal department of Nielsen for Europe from London, and the regional director of Nielsen, based in Belgrade, both of whom travelled to Zagreb solely for the purpose of this meeting.