TVB has hired the company behind America's famous Nielsen ratings to monitor viewing levels over the next five years.
And, for the first time, the research will also include those who watch on the internet.
In co-operation with the Association of Accredited Advertising Agencies, the station appointed marketing researcher Nielsen to monitor viewing habits from next year until 2017. It will install meters in television sets and computers in 800 households, up from 650 households covered by the previous surveyor CSM Media Research.
But TVB general manager Cheong Shin-keong said the decision to part with CSM had nothing to do with a dispute between CSM and rival ATV, which claimed the old monitoring system underestimated its audience and lacked transparency.
ATV dumped CSM at the beginning of last year and appointed the University of Hong Kong's public opinion programme to conduct telephone surveys, rather than constantly monitoring the same viewers and extrapolating the results.
Cheong said TVB had approached ATV to work with Nielsen but had been rebuffed.
'It seems that [the ATV executive TVB was dealing with] does not fully understand what television ratings are,' he said, adding that the methodology used by ATV did not meet international standards.