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Evolution of TV audience research is un-dissociable from the main stages which led from a state owned channel without competition to a system joining public and commercial channels. Results from the ORTF mailed panel, first reliable and permanent device (since 1967), are reserved to no more than channel’s executives, in order to lighten a program policy still willing, whereas CESP is conducting a parallel survey used by advertisers. Growing competition between public channels comes with growing attention paid to audience and, in 1982, the setting of TV meter represents a real break, since results are rapidly obtained and precise. With the arriving of commercial channels and resulting competition between broadcasters, advertisers have the power to require their participation to the control of the Médiamétrie system and impose people meter, which allows calculating audience by target.