November 17, 2019, 20:21 / Media

The state will count the users of Internet companies

Resistant sites are promised to turn off advertising Ksenia Boletskaya

Advertisers and content producers need a universal and transparent system for assessing the Internet audience / Evgeniy Razumny / Vedomosti

Officials have decided how the state registration system for Internet users will be structured: sites will be required to provide data about their audience to an organization specially authorized for this by the state. Sites that refuse to do this will be prohibited from advertising. Such amendments to the laws on media and information were prepared by Roskomnadzor together with media companies. Vedomosti has reviewed the document. On Friday, November 15, media companies, Internet holdings, specialized associations and officials discussed it at a meeting with the head of Roskomnadzor, Alexander Zharov, several meeting participants told Vedomosti. A Roskomnadzor representative declined to comment.

The intention of officials to create a state counter for the Internet became known in September. If on TV both the channels themselves and advertisers have long agreed on a single data standard - this is information from the analytical company Mediascope (controlled by the state-owned VTsIOM since 2016), then on the Internet several systems compete - the same Mediascope, Yandex, Rambler Group, LiveInternet, Google, etc.

Officials are not satisfied with such scattered information about the Internet audience. Advertisers and content producers need a universal and transparent system for assessing the Internet audience, said Deputy Minister of Communications Alexey Volin. Advertisers are forced to use scattered, unverifiable data online, which, moreover, does not correlate well with data on television viewers, Zharov said. The state itself, which wants to clearly understand what content its citizens watch online, which Internet platforms have the greatest influence on public opinion, etc., say managers of media companies, lacks uniform data on the online audience.

At the beginning of autumn, officials did not yet have a clear understanding of how the state meter could be structured, which sites would be required to install it, and what data Internet companies should provide. And now in the government and the presidential administration there are different ideas about how exactly this should be done, three managers of media companies know: each group is trying to quickly present to the industry and protect its own concept. Roskomnadzor is so far the only one who managed not only to write a project with the help of the media industry, but also to collect the first reviews for it from telecom operators, advertising agencies, etc., Vedomosti’s interlocutors say.

The draft of Roskomnadzor and the media industry does not define the range of sites that will have to submit data to the authorized organization - most of the amendments refer to “Internet resources”. There are no details about what data the sites should provide - the measurement methodology after the adoption of the law will have to be determined by Roskomnadzor. It is separately stated that sites must report not only on the audience as a whole, but also on the audience of the advertising placed. The bill describes in more detail the conditions for selection, powers and restrictions for the authorized organization. The amendments oblige it to count both Internet users and television viewers. This is the only way to ensure a unified approach to measurements in different environments, one of the meeting participants explained to Vedomosti. Two other participants say that this is a controversial issue and perhaps the authorized organization will not be required to take measurements in both environments. Only a Russian company will be able to measure the Internet under the state flag; foreigners cannot control more than 20% of shares or interests in it. Finally, the authorized organization will be able to completely control the RuNet audience measurement market - other players will be required to undergo an audit once a year.

Managers of media companies interviewed by Vedomosti have no doubt that the only contender for this role is Mediascope. Mediascope CEO Ruslan Tagiyev says that if the state announces a tender for measurements on the Internet, Mediascope will participate in it: “I expect that our many years of experience will be very useful here. Integrating audience data from Channel One and Google into a single measurement system is an extremely important industrial task.”

Most of the participants in the meeting with Zharov - Yandex , Mail.ru Group, National Media Group, Channel One, the Association of Communication Agencies of Russia - refused to comment. A representative of the Media Communications Union said that the majority of market players will accept the proposed draft amendments favorably. Representatives of the National Advertising Alliance and Google did not respond to Vedomosti's request.

Unofficially, employees of media companies and Internet holdings indicate that the bill is still written in very general terms, the effect depends on how the document is finalized, what measurement methodology will subsequently be approved by Roskomnadzor, and how exactly the service will seek a ban on advertising by those sites that do not provide data . “How can officials actually prohibit Google or Facebook from placing advertisements for Russian users? No way!” – says one of Vedomosti’s interlocutors. Two experts and an official participating in the discussion note that the amendments are deliberately written in broad strokes - this will give more opportunities in the preparation of by-laws, their amendments following rapidly changing technologies, etc. The norms will be introduced in stages, one of them knows: first The data will be requested from sites that host Russian video content, and then gradually from other sites. Liability will be provided not only for sites that do not provide data, but also for companies that continue to advertise on them, he knows: “These mechanisms are now being worked out.”