The Broadcast Research Council of South Africa (BRC) has confirmed that Total Video Measurement (TVM) will officially launch on 1 January 2027, replacing the long-running Television Audience Measurement Survey (TAMS) with a unified industry currency for measuring television and online video audiences.
The new system will bring linear television, time-shifted viewing, connected TV and online video into a single daily dataset, marking a significant change in how video audiences are measured and traded in South Africa.
According to the BRC, the decision follows findings from its 2026 Establishment Survey, which highlighted the increasingly fragmented nature of video consumption across screens and platforms. Television and online video measurement will therefore launch simultaneously, with no interim TV-only phase and no back-trending to TAMS data.
“The question is no longer whether we measure online video but rather how we measure the whole picture reliably, on one panel, under one rulebook. TVM does exactly that, and it does it in one move on 1 January 2027,” said Gary Whitaker, CEO of the Broadcast Research Council of South Africa.
TVM will provide two reporting layers within the same measurement framework.
Broadcaster Total TV will extend the existing television currency to include connected TV viewing and broadcaster-owned content consumed across devices.
Total Video will add platform-level online viewing on personal devices, covering broadcaster video-on-demand services, subscription streaming platforms and certified social video.
The BRC said the unified approach will enable broadcasters, agencies and advertisers to compare broadcaster audiences with the wider online video market using a common measurement framework.
TVM will be produced under the BRC’s Mandatory Calculation and Reporting Rules, with certified software suppliers able to distribute and deliver the data through their own platforms.
The BRC will release live TVM test data from the end of October 2026, following broadcaster scrutiny, giving the industry more than two months to prepare for the official launch.
The testing period is intended to allow broadcasters, agencies and advertisers to update planning and trading systems, retrain teams and validate reporting processes before TVM becomes the official trading currency.
“Giving broadcasters, agencies and advertisers genuine test data more than two months before go-live means teams can retrain, recalibrate their systems and validate their outputs against real numbers well ahead of trading on the new currency,” Whitaker said.
The BRC has encouraged industry participants to engage with their software providers ahead of October to understand implementation plans and ensure systems are ready for TVM.
Measuring Audiences Across Every Screen
At launch, TVM will measure viewing across linear television, time-shifted television, connected TV and online video consumed on personal devices.
Broadcaster streaming viewed on connected TVs will be credited to the relevant broadcaster where it falls within the applicable time-shift window. Viewing of broadcaster content outside that window, together with viewing on platforms such as Netflix and YouTube, will be reported at platform level.
The BRC has also confirmed a mid-2027 upgrade that will introduce programme- and episode-level reporting for broadcaster digital platforms using the same underlying measurement system.
The launch of TVM will end TAMS as South Africa’s television audience currency.
From 1 January 2027, TVM will become the official industry currency for video audiences, with the BRC retaining responsibility for the research panel, measurement methodology, daily currency production, reporting rules and software certification.
Commercial services, including AdIntel, go-to-market services and buy- and sell-side trading tools, will remain outside the BRC’s remit.
