The Norwegian TV audience measurement steering committee believes it will have the most advanced hybrid audience measurement model in the world by 2018. At that point Kantar Media will help to deliver the ‘Total TV and Video Rating’ (TVOV) for the country, which will measure broadcast viewing in and outside the home and online viewing inside and outside the home.
“This new system is the first trading currency that will measure TV set viewing and IP/streaming TV and out-of-home viewing in one combined service,” declares John McCarthy, Global Marketing Communications Director of Kantar Media Audiences. He says other hybrid models have so far focused on in-home TV and video viewing.
The new system also means that online viewing, which today is not part of the TV currency in Norway, will be included in the currency. “It will report viewing of broadcaster online players across all screens,” Kantar Media explains.
The broadcasters NRK, TV 2, MTG and Discovery Networks Norway are all members of the Norwegian TV audience measurement steering committee. This entity has awarded Kantar the new contract for the provision of TV ratings. The service will run for five years initially from 2018, with a go-live target of January that year.
The new service will comprise two panels. The first panel covers broadcast TV viewing at home, online TV viewing at home and out-of-home online viewing.
The TV set viewing includes live, time-shift and on-demand (all referred to as Core TV). The broadcast measurement is performed using Kantar Media’s PeopleMeter technology, watermarking and audio matching technology. This combination provides viewing detection across 150 channels. On-device Internet measurement technology provides census-level tracking of online viewing and encompasses smartphones, tablets, PCs and other connected devices (all referred to as Extended TV).
This first panel will be a single source representative panel of 3,000 people (aged 10-79 years) that will be supplemented with a further 300 children aged 2-9 years. All 3,300 users will register their viewing.
(The panel is broken down into 3,000 and 300 to provide visibility of the workings; there is a required net reporting sample size of 3,000 people aged 10-79. For users aged 2 -9 there is no specific required sample size. Kantar anticipates that around 300 children will therefore be reported with guest viewing – and these will be included in the trading currency.)
Out-of-home viewing is a big deal in Norway as it includes viewing from second homes. Around 30% of the population owns a second home. Ownership of tablets has also grown from 7% to 68% and ownership of smartphone devices has also grown from 46% to 88% in the last five years, Kantar reports. The inclusion of Internet viewing out of home to this panel is an important development, therefore.
Kantar has been measuring out of home viewing of broadcast TV in the country since July 2014 (and this has been part of the TV currency). The new ratings system from 2018 will make use of more accurate reporting for this particular requirement. Under the ‘Total TV and Video Rating’ there will be a second panel specifically for broadcast TV viewed out of home.
“The first and second panels are entirely independent and representative; there is no overlap between the two samples,” Kantar points out. Measurement for this second (out of home broadcast) panel will make use of MediaMetrie’s portable RateOnAir device (a portable meter carried by panelists). This detects any watermarked content (using Kantar Media’s watermarking technology).
This broadcast out of home reporting will be based on a representative sample of 1,500 individuals aged 10-79 years-old.
Data from the two separate panels will then be fused on a daily basis. “We will apply our increasingly sophisticated mathematical algorithms to fuse the two panels in the early hours of each morning to report a single data set, as the Norwegian TV currency moves to TVOV,” Kantar Media reports. This fused data will also be calibrated with census level viewing volumes provided by broadcasters from their online player services (i.e. server reports, so not connected to the panel data).
Kantar points out that when it comes to online viewing, it is important to use panel data, measured using the output of a meter device, rather than just server request records that show the type and duration of viewing on each device. “The census data collected via services provides viewing volumes by device. It is only through a panel with meter technology that we are able to provide viewing levels by individual person, with demographics,” McCarthy explains. “The Norwegian service combines these two data sources.”
This is therefore a hybrid measurement system on different levels, combining in-home and out of home, television and online and, when it comes to the online viewing, metered panel data and server/device viewing session records (for calibration).
According to John Richard Hewitt, Head of Research at TV 2 and head of the Norwegian TV audience measurement steering committee: “It is critical that broadcasters are making informed decisions using the most accurate, holistic TV currency data, and it is equally important to facilitate holistic media buying decisions at advertisers and agencies.”
The new measurement service (from 2018) will continue to be delivered by Kantar’s TNS Gallup team. John Richard Hewitt continues: “TNS Gallup have been delivering high quality TV ratings to Norway since the turn of the century. TNS Gallup presented an innovative and technically sound proposal building on their many years of measuring TV in Norway. We are confident that, as our partner of choice, they will maintain the highest possible standards whilst delivering a TVOV for Norway.”
Richard Asquith, Global CEO of Audience Intelligence at Kantar Media comments: “In recent years commentators in the U.S. and elsewhere have lauded Norway as being at the forefront of TV measurement. We are delighted to be continuing our partnership with the Norwegian TV industry, breaking new ground with our award-winning techniques and hybrid models. We are proud to be entrusted to build and deliver the most advanced hybrid model to date as we transition from Television to Total Video measurement.”
Photo: The Viaplay online service from MTG in Norway.
Interested in advanced audience measurement for advertising?
Future TV Advertising Forum 2016 (London, starting November 30) will provide thought leadership on audience measurement and how the advertising industry can achieve a holistic view of consumers across every screen. Check conference website.
