Numeris’ new digital measurement a ‘necessary step’: expert

Broadcasters with multiplatform properties are expected to benefit from a new video audience measurement (VAM) system from Numeris, which announced Thursday that it will begin recruiting viewers to participate as panelists, after recently completing a proof of concept. “It’s overall positive in that any incremental viewing that’s captured over and above linear will help those shows/properties and provide a clearer picture for advertisers,” Kaan Yigit, president and research director at Solutions Research Group Consultants Inc., said in an email. “Some will benefit more than others from multiplatform,” he said. “Sports and big prime time shows being the ones that come to mind.” Numeris, the non-profit audience measurement company, announced the system in October. It said in a Thursday press release that the system is dedicated exclusively to tracking digital content consumption. The VAM will be different than the set-top box (STB) system that’s still in development, whose working group consisting of telecoms was mandated by the CRTC. “One is measuring more on the linear space, which would include STB,” Neil McEneaney, president and CEO of Numeris since 2015, said in a phone interview. “VAM is new, it’s additive to start measuring the digital space. What we do is we take the two worlds and we put them together.” He said Numeris has been working on it for about 18 months. The VAM system will measure all things that linear doesn’t: tablets, mobile, and personal computers, the numbers from which Numeris eventually hopes to combine with linear TV measurements to give a broader picture of what’s going on with viewer consumption. In a follow-up email, Numeris director of communications Tom Jenks said it’s too early to know how exactly the data from the new system will be combined with ratings from its existing service, but said it will consult with industry to see how the datasets can be combined. “We strongly support the implementation of VAM as a critical step forward allowing advertisers and agencies to understand the value of their video investment in digital and linear,” Cathy Collier, chair of Numeris’ board of directors, said in a press release. McEneaney said this new view will provide it, for the first time, with an unduplicated data set, meaning users will be able to analyze audiences on individual devices, rather than lumping that data together. News of the system’s pre-implementation roadmap comes during a challenging time for some content owners. Corus Entertainment Inc. head Doug Murphy recently outlined in a conference call with analysts the company’s vision for the future, which includes more technology, better data use and more content. It came following a quarter that saw declining TV advertising revenues. Independent broadcasting consultant Kelly Lynne Ashton said in an email that this is a “great announcement” that is a “necessary step” in measuring audience. “This will allow....those with multiple platforms such as traditional broadcasters who have linear broadcast, on demand, website players and YouTube channels, and producers to provide advertisers and funders with a more accurate assessment of their audiences, and therefore more revenue,” Ashton said. Mark Finney, the vice-president of strategic sales at BCE Inc.’s media division, said the news is significant. “Understanding consumption across all of our media properties will play an important part in our strategy of increasing our digital footprint,” Finney said in an emailed statement. “It will advance our measurement systems and provide us with a more holistic view of total video consumption patterns,” Finney added. “This will enable us to both monetize video more effectively and aid in the planning of advertising across different video properties.” But Yigit said he doesn’t “see this substantially changing the trajectory of the shift in advertising dollars from legacy media to digital,” noting that platforms like Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc. offer very specific “targetability and reach within younger , which is attractive.” The system will also include a country-wide representative sample of 5,000 households, which will be rotated on a continuous basis, McEneaney said. He added he doesn’t expect Numeris to reach that number in the first year. Recruiting that 5,000-household panel will begin this fall and initial analyses of the data will begin in the spring of next year, a press release said. To measure consumption, Numeris will use a self-install system with the help of measurement company Comscore Inc. and data company Kantar Media, that will track the digital content. Earlier this year, panelists at a conference argued that the Canadian media industry was behind on data, with one saying their company relies on Google to track data. Mark Leslie, vice-president of research and consumer insights at Corus, noted as a panelist for one session that smaller networks and lower-rated programs will stand to benefit the most from Numeris’ systems. “The VAM solution has received significant interest from businesses in the digital community as the industry has expressed a need for a holistic, consistent, transparent, audited video audience measurement system,” Numeris’ Thursday press release said. “Numeris is currently in discussions to explore additional digital partnerships.” — With reporting by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Numeris’ new digital measurement a ‘necessary step’: expert

News | July 16, 2018

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Numeris’ new digital measurement a ‘necessary step’: expert

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