Nigeria launches peoplemeter TV audience system, targets 60,000 households

September 4, 2026 · marketingedge.com.ng

Lagos became the entry point for Nigeria's new Audience Measurement System (AMS) on September 1, 2026, when the National Broadcasting Commission began installing peoplemeter devices in roughly 7,000 of an eventual 60,000 households nationwide. First Media and Entertainment Integrated Limited (FMEIL) is running the rollout with technical support from Bulgaria-based GARB, under a joint appointment from the NBC and the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON). The peoplemeters record viewing automatically and send the data to a central data centre every day, replacing the diary system in which viewers wrote down their own habits. After Lagos, the second phase covers Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano, with later phases reaching the rest of the country's six geopolitical zones.

Budgets spread across Nigeria's more than 100 free-to-air channels gain a single, passively collected audience dataset for judging reach and frequency across an increasingly fragmented market. ARCON Director General Dr. Olalekan Fadolapo said the system would give advertisers confidence in "making media investment decisions," while broadcasters can use the same panel to test which programming actually holds an audience. The transition depends on household cooperation: Minister Mohammed Idris flagged concerns from panel homes about unfamiliar recruitment calls and equipment installation, so the credibility of Nigeria's first electronic ratings currency will rest as much on public trust as on the peoplemeter hardware itself.