In today’s world of media and advertising, knowing exactly who is watching or listening to what—and when—is very important. It supports media companies and advertisers decide where and how to spend their money. Countries like South Africa and Kenya have built strong systems to measure media audiences. By learning how they do it, Uganda can better understand how far we have come with our very own National Audience Measurement Survey (NAMS).

South Africa: Rigorous Broadcast Measurement via the BRC

South Africa’s media research is managed by the Broadcast Research Council (BRC). For radio, they use a system called RAMS (Radio Audience Measurement Survey), which interviews people by phone the day after they’ve listened to radio. The phone numbers are randomly selected to make sure the sample represents all types of people from different regions and backgrounds. For TV,  they use people meters—small devices installed in selected homes that track what people watch every day. These two methods provide regular, trustworthy data. All this information is then brought together through a system called FUSION, which helps media planners see the full picture across TV, radio, print, and digital platforms.

Kenya: Phone Calls and Diaries for Real Insights

Audience measurement in Kenya is done by Ipsos and Geopoll. Ipsos uses a day after recall method supported by Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI). They call people and ask them what they watched or listened to the previous day. These calls happen every week, and each person also keeps a diary of their media habits. The data is collected from all 47 counties, and the number of people called is based on how many live in each county. This helps make sure the results represent the whole country. Media companies and advertisers trust this data, which supports them to plan better.

Uganda: Levelling up

In October 2023, advertisers, media houses, marketers and aggregators among others came together to form a Technical Research Team (TRT). This would form the committee that’d guide the process for the next survey. The survey was not only about media but included products as well. The result was the Uganda All Media and Products Survey (UAMPS) and was launched February 2025.

The ongoing survey uses two main approaches. First, it sends researchers to homes to do face-to-face interviews. Then, it follows up with regular phone calls (a Tracker Survey) using the same day-after-recall method as Kenya and South Africa. The survey is designed to be representative and acceptable using GPS mapping and random sampling. With 3000 correspondents contacted every month, the aim is to talk to 36,000 people by the end of the year, making it the largest and most reliable audience survey Uganda has ever had.

From Learning to Leading

What we see from Kenya and South Africa is clear: having strong audience data supports all the players in the media industry make better choices. It improves trust and leads to smarter media buying. Now that Uganda has its own trusted system, we can finally take our place among countries where media is traded based on real, shared facts.

This was the first part of our NAMS Series. In the next part, we’ll explore how this data is more than just numbers—it’s a currency in the making. And how the current NAMS data could be its most valuable media tool yet. Stay Tuned!