Médiamétrie (French pronunciation: [medjametʁi]), established in 1985, is a public limited company specialising in audience measurement and research into audio-visual and digital media usage in France.
Médiamétrie is also the company that provides the audiovisual watchdog agency ARCOM and the INA with accurate time slots for the programmes broadcast, as well as certification for the airing of advertisements.
Measurement was carried out on a daily basis with results reported the following morning, however, no indication was given as to the profile of the audience watching the television set.
In early 1988, Médiamétrie and other market stakeholders agreed to launch a benchmark measurement based on a larger panel and which took individual audiences into account.
In 2000, the company launched a joint-venture with Nielsen to produce an internet / computer measurement in France that was based on a panel of several thousand individuals.
Its studies are used by media and industry professionals to tailor their editorial content and to obtain data to use when calculating advertising rates.
In Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, Cameroon and Madagascar, Médiamétrie and its local partners conduct several “reporting-based” surveys annually to discover the TV, radio and internet practices of the inhabitants of these countries.
Composed of 5,000 households i.e. almost 11,400 individuals aged 4 years and older equipped with a television set, the sample is representative of the French population.
This data is then processed so that it can be extrapolated to the total French population, thus generating the audience results that are delivered every morning at 9am to measurement clients.
Major decisions regarding the definition, orientation, management and evolution of TV audience measurement are debated at these committee meetings.
Each day, 4.4 million French people watch television on internet screens, i.e. computer, smartphone and tablet (Source: Global TV – Oct.-Dec. 2017).
In order to take these new practices into account, today, Médiamétrie measures TV audiences on the television set but also on smartphones, tablets, and computers.
This automatic audience measurement covers more than 120 channels and has a catchment population in excess of 46.2 million people aged 4 years and older.
Médiamétrie also measures SVoD practices (subscription video on demand) to determine the consumer habits of French people, as well as the most viewed programmes.
The audience measurement institution was challenged by two of its directors, Patrice Duhamel and Philippe Santini, who accused the company of opacity and inertia in the face changing technology and new modes of consuming media (broadband internet, DTT, mobile, podcasts).
In 2009, the novelist Marc Welinski published a thriller entitled: “Indices”, whose plot was based on the internal Médiamétrie manipulation of the audience ratings for a major television channel, TVF.
In 2012, the journalist Eric Leser of slate.fr published a heavily critical article evoking issues such as: conflicts of interest, easily manipulated measurements, back room plots, promotional games and even the lack of competition.
In 2017, Didier Maïsto, President of the Fiducial Media Group and the owner of Sud Radio, announced his intention to file a complaint against Médiamétrie.
He called into question the company’s survey methods which he claimed could indicate erroneous figures and he accused it of “being the judge in its own case.