CSM Media delivers its first TV rating report early

China-based CSM Media Research last week issued its preliminary ratings for Hong Kong television programmes - a month earlier than scheduled after the incumbent provider, AC Nielsen, refused to extend its contract to this month after losing a renewal bid.

CSM has been awarded a five-year contract by Hong Kong TV Audience Measurement, whose founding subscribers include the city's two terrestrial TV stations - Asia Television and Television Broadcasts. The contract officially begins next month.

AC Nielsen, which has been providing the ratings service for more than 10 years, lost in the bidding for the contract, which expired last year.

Sources said Hong Kong TV Audience Measurement had asked AC Nielsen to extend its contract to this month as a transitional arrangement. However, the sources said, AC Nielsen had asked for a higher charge and the two parties failed to strike an extension deal.

A spokeswoman for AC Nielsen said the company had officially stopped providing the TV-rating service at the end of last year, but it was still supporting clients until next month.

'As the TV-rating service can't be suspended for a whole month, we have started to deliver our rating report earlier,' said Chan Tin-shing, managing director of CSM Hong Kong.