Kantar will also support local organisation MARSA (Azerbaijan Media Audience Research System) in the implementation of a nationally representative panel of 960 households scheduled to launch in 2022.

The new service will be built upon Kantar’s People Meter 7, the newest generation of meters that uses a touch-screen tablet to measure viewing on TV sets whether live or via catch-up services. This meter is supported by Kantar’s latest audio matching content detection technology and is capable of reporting viewing data in real time.

Kantar will additionally license Atria, its cloud-based solution for panel management, data processing and storage; Atria-Monitor, the TV monitoring tool for programmes and advertising spots; and Instar, Kantar’s data analysis software.

Suriyya Alizade, a representative of MARSA, commented: “Working with Kantar will enable the Azerbaijani television industry to benefit from trusted, granular data that will improve the planning, scheduling and evaluation of TV content. MARSA looks forward to working with Kantar to establish a state-of-the-art rating service in Azerbaijan.”

Keld Nielsen, global strategic director at Kantar’s media division, added: “The new service is a significant leap forward in audience measurement in Azerbaijan and Kantar looks forward to supporting the industry as it seeks to unlock the value of audiences and deliver growth for its stakeholders.”