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TV fake viewing data scandal

SOME regional television stations have allegedly cheated their viewership data by bribing sample households to watch their channels, according to People's Daily today.

They earmarked tens of million yuan a year to hire private companies to promote their brands, mostly bribing the households to fake higher rating points, the report said.

Since US Nielsen Media Research's withdrawal in 2008, CSM Media Research is the only TV rating researcher in China.

It installed a box on TV sets in selected sample households to gauge the percentage of viewers for each program.

Normally, regional TV stations attract audiences of 0.2 to 0.3 percent. But data indicated some stations have more than double the ratings of others, the report quoted insiders as saying.

A taxi driver whose family was selected as a sample household told People's Daily that he was offered 200 yuan (US$29.49) a month by a local TV station to watch its channel. The family has been disqualified from further research.

In Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, a CSM Media Research technician surnamed Wang was sentenced to 15 months jail and fined 200,000 yuan last year for conspiring with TV station workers to bribe households to get higher viewing rates, according to Xi'an Intermediate People's Court.




 

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