We have been organising highly-respected conferences for advertisers, broadcasters and agencies since 1991.
Our most recent events are listed below. We retain the presentations from these conferences, together with audio files of panel sessions. The programmes for these conferences are available to view.
Click on the relevant conference for more information:
8th November 2023, Nice, France
What drives the enduring strength of audio and its measurement? In Nice this year we had three primary areas of focus:
We aimed to widen your understanding of how radio and audio are being consumed and how linear and on-demand best complement each other. What are the listener need-states that audio is able to respond to and how do these vary by demographic, by time of day and by country? What does the audio landscape look like in markets that have fully transitioned to a digital ecosystem? How is the relationship between audio and travel changing post-pandemic, particularly in-car, as vehicle operating systems become media and advertising real estate?
A number of markets now have a range of ongoing ‘ingredients’ that fit into their measurement systems, but thus far no two markets are following exactly the same recipe for combining metered measurement, diaries, day-after recall and census streaming data. How can passive and recall data best be integrated? What takes priority? How transparent are the algorithms used to do this? Will online diaries inevitably be phased out? We sought to understand the optimum way forward not just for data collection and blending, but also the metrics that are best suited to make the most of these new systems. Is it time to move beyond traditional radio concepts like quarter hour and reach to metrics like CPMs?
Meanwhile, podcasting and non-linear audio continue to grow, and so does our understanding of how both content and advertising work best in an on-demand context. We looked at the benefits of podcasts in reaching parts of the population that linear cannot and how listeners navigate an ocean of podcast content. How is podcasting data being activated for media sales? Which data sources offer the best strategies for effective measurement and what does the future have in store?
Joint session for Radio & Audio and TV & Video delegates
In our joint session we debated issues of common interest to all those involved in and using video and audio measurement.
Sustainability is a major priority for the media industry. The carbon footprint of different media channels is coming under scrutiny and with it the consideration of sustainability metrics that could feed into media planning decisions. Most directly for our community, how sustainable are the different forms of media measurement? Is data in the cloud more environmentally friendly than metered panels, or does big data require energy-hungry big server farms?
Artificial Intelligence is dominating the wider public debate with the advent of generative AI, but forms of AI and machine learning have been in use in measurement for a while now. What does the media industry make of AI, whether for content production, ad planning and serving or research design and administration?
As the WFA cross-media initiative progresses at a global level, many local developments are underway, some growing organically out of the JIC structure. However, increasingly currencies are not ‘staying in their lane’ but widening to measure other forms of media. We showcased some significant developments in cross-platform and cross-media measurement and asked how sustainable single-media currencies will be in the future.
Click on the button below to download a pdf of the agenda.
The 2023 International Radio & Audio Conference was generously sponsored by GfK.
The Tony Twyman Award for the best paper at the 2023 asi International Radio & Audio Conference was won by Patricia Sonius of NMO Nationaal Media Onderzoek and Irena Petric of Ipsos for their paper Introduction of the NMO audio currency: a bold leap or a necessary well-managed innovation? The duo outlined the new, innovative Dutch audio measurement, giving a more granular way of measuring listening that produces significantly different results from the diary-based measurement used in the past. The new currency gives the market more possibilities for selling and buying, but also causes many questions and disturbance in the market. A video of the presentation can be found in our conference news piece Managing Complexity (part two), and you can download a pdf of the deck by clicking on the button below.
The Tony Twyman Award for 2023 is kindly sponsored by dataBreeders
Tony Twyman (1932-2014) worked within the media research industry for many years, most recently before he retired operating a consultancy service in media, communications and social research. Tony gained degrees in mathematics and psychology from Cambridge and London Universities and taught experimental psychology at London. During his career he was the Technical Director of BARB and consulted on a number of television industry contracts around the world. He was technical consultant to the independent radio companies for RAJAR. Other consultancies included JICMARS (medical readership). He was formerly a joint managing director of RBL (Research International – London).
Tony was a highly-respected authority in audience measurement worldwide. He chaired the asi European Radio Conference and the research session of the asi European Television Conference for many years and was a much-valued adviser and friend.
Click on the button below to download a pdf of the award-winning paper
8th-10th November 2023, Nice, France
Across all three days of our conferences, we had a record number of submissions, reflecting just how much is going on in media and its measurement.
Joint session for TV & Video and Radio & Audio delegates
In our joint session we debated issues of common interest to all those involved in and using video and audio measurement.
Sustainability is a major priority for the media industry. The carbon footprint of different media channels is coming under scrutiny and with it the consideration of sustainability metrics that could feed into media planning decisions. Most directly for our community, how sustainable are the different forms of media measurement? Is data in the cloud more environmentally friendly than metered panels, or does big data require energy-hungry big server farms?
Artificial Intelligence is dominating the wider public debate with the advent of generative AI, but forms of AI and machine learning have been in use in measurement for a while now. What does the media industry make of AI, whether for content production, ad planning and serving or research design and administration?
As the WFA cross-media initiative progresses at a global level, many local developments are underway, some growing organically out of the JIC structure. However, increasingly currencies are not ‘staying in their lane’ but widening to measure other forms of media. We showcased some significant developments in cross-platform and cross-media measurement and asked how sustainable single-media currencies will be in the future.
2023 International Television & Video Conference
The world of streaming has evolved considerably in just the last year, with global services that had seemingly unlimited funds for production now challenged by economic reality and a writers’ and actors’ strike in the US. Meanwhile a number are doubling down on advertising as a source of revenue. We examined what the real state of play is for the global streamers and how successfully broadcasters are managing the transition from broadcast to streaming, evaluating the optimum balance between linear and on-demand.
How can content owners best monetise content across multiple platforms? Is the era of exclusivity coming to an end? What analytic tools are available to help us best understand how content works across an extended lifetime? With the current focus on WFA and advertising measurement, we highlighted the importance of content measurement and the need to take account of what methods and metrics are needed to help media owners optimise their content strategies.
In our advertising session we asked how the measurement community can provide solutions that are more directly relevant and helpful to the agency planning community. What progress is being made to bring third-party audience data together with first-party data sets to improve advertising efficiency? We had a particular focus on how the use of clean rooms is unlocking the power of first- and third-party data sets, with specific examples of their use by advertisers and media owners to provide enhanced advertising targeting services. Are clean rooms the magic answer to privacy considerations? How can we best understand what happens in them? Meanwhile, at the last conference we highlighted the opportunities offered by Connected TV and the evolving work around attention metrics and returned to both themes at this year’s event.
With consensus about the need for panels as a source of truth for understanding persons-based measurement, what are the priorities that determine the direction of travel for the data flow in hybrid systems? Is big data there to make panels better and more granular, or are panels there simply as an input to allow big data to be turned from devices into people?
Measurement techniques continue to evolve and we highlighted new advances in metering and content detection. In our measurement session we heard from markets that are truly innovating in the field of video measurement, widening the scope to include other platforms and in some cases measuring outside the home. What has worked well and what has needed further development? How have users reacted?
We also put definitions of impressions and therefore reach under the spotlight. Can all video be essentially treated in the same way or does so-called ‘fit for TV’ or premium content demand a different approach to evaluating advertising than that adopted for social video. Do we accept that all impressions are not equal or is the MRC two-second minimum the best common standard to be applied to all cross-media video planning and trading?
As we move into a world of clean rooms, data exchanges, blind matching, virtual IDs and ACR, how can we assure that data is transparent and accurate? Does the development of ever more complex methodologies necessarily represent progress and help us make better decisions? Are we in danger of mistaking increased precision with accuracy?
The increasing complexity of measurement makes it harder to set standards and conduct auditing. Is there a need for new guidelines for TAM that take account of the advent of big data and data science? Are we even agreed on the lexicon and the phrases that we currently use, such as ‘impressions’, ‘impacts’ and ‘attention’?
As always, our aim was to get together with our community to provide a forum for the industry to share experience, debate, understand and move forward.
Click on the button below to download a pdf of the agenda.
The 2023 asi International Television & Video Conference was generously sponsored by Nielsen.
The Tony Twyman Award for the best paper at the 2023 asi International Television & Video Conference was won by Frederik Barnholdt of TV2 Danmark, and Chantale Coulombe of Nielsen, for their paper Strategic use of 4-screen measurement. The paper outlines how the new Total Audience Measurement in Denmark has allowed strategic decisions and optimisation of the viewing across four screens from the commercial broadcaster’s point of view. A video of the presentation can be found in our conference news piece Managing Complexity (part one), and you can download a pdf of the deck by clicking on the button below.
The Tony Twyman Award for 2023 is kindly sponsored by dataBreeders
Tony Twyman (1932-2014) worked within the media research industry for many years, most recently before he retired operating a consultancy service in media, communications and social research. Tony gained degrees in mathematics and psychology from Cambridge and London Universities and taught experimental psychology at London. During his career he was the Technical Director of BARB and consulted on a number of television industry contracts around the world. He was technical consultant to the independent radio companies for RAJAR. Other consultancies included JICMARS (medical readership). He was formerly a joint managing director of RBL (Research International – London).
Tony was a highly-respected authority in audience measurement worldwide. He chaired the asi European Radio Conference and the research session of the asi European Television Conference for many years and was a much-valued adviser and friend.
Click on the button below to download a pdf of the award-winning paper
2nd November 2022, Nice, France
Audio has consolidated its position as a vibrant medium for both listeners and advertisers. The ways in which audio and radio can be consumed (linear, catch up, podcasts) and the local and global platforms on which it is distributed mean that it is very much a hybrid medium. As a result, it’s no surprise that hybrid audio measurement is also on the rise, partly due to the attractions of electronic measurement panels and partly due to a need to make measurement more resilient against disruptions like the pandemic. What implications does this have for the structure and reporting of currencies? Is the direction of travel to make electronic data look like diary data or is this an opportunity to adopt new metrics for measuring radio? We’ll be looking at how portable measurement technology is evolving as well as sharing techniques for combining recall surveys, electronic panels and audio streaming data.
Meanwhile, as podcasting continues to boom, what steps are being taken to convert streams and downloads into real listening with real people? What role can subscriber log-in data play?
As more and more radio and podcasts adopt video feeds, we will be examining the benefits versus the costs and how we can best measure the wider reach of audio content? Where does this form of ‘audio-led’ video content sit best in terms of measurement currencies? Are the boundaries between video and audio starting to evaporate?
Joint session for Radio & Audio and TV & Video delegates
In our joint session we will be debating issues of common interest to all those involved in and using video and audio measurement. How is the media eco-system evolving in terms of the balance between local and global, between linear and non-linear? Are we looking at more and more walled gardens for content and ad distribution? Where does that leave aggregators of audio and video content? Where does that leave measurement systems attempting to adapt to new technological challenges and the increasing restrictions related to privacy legislation?
Younger audiences are the holy grail for not just media owners and advertisers, but for researchers too. How can we overcome the challenges in recruiting young viewers and listeners to research and ensure they are representative?
Click on the button below to download a pdf of the agenda.
The 2022 International Radio & Audio Conference was generously sponsored by GfK and Triton Digital.
2nd November 2022, Nice, France
The Tony Twyman Award for the best paper at the 2022 asi International Radio & Audio Conference was won by Marcin Bągard of Nielsen for his paper ‘The sound of silence – estimating radio listening via headphones‘. Marcin’s clear and thoughtful presentation outlined how Nielsen is deploying a modelling procedure uniquely designed to give estimates of headphone users for radio listening in Norway. You can watch his presentation here, and download a pdf of his paper by clicking on the button below.
Tony Twyman (1932-2014) worked within the media research industry for many years, most recently before he retired operating a consultancy service in media, communications and social research. Tony gained degrees in mathematics and psychology from Cambridge and London Universities and taught experimental psychology at London. During his career he was the Technical Director of BARB and consulted on a number of television industry contracts around the world. He was technical consultant to the independent radio companies for RAJAR. Other consultancies included JICMARS (medical readership). He was formerly a joint managing director of RBL (Research International – London).
Tony was a highly-respected authority in audience measurement worldwide. He chaired the asi European Radio Conference and the research session of the asi European Television Conference for many years and was a much-valued adviser and friend.
Click on the button below to download a pdf of the award-winning paper
2nd-4th November 2022, Nice, France
It has been three years since our last physical event in Prague and, whilst our two virtual events helped to keep the conversation going, there is so much that has happened and is changing in the world of video and its measurement.
Joint session for TV & Video and Radio & Audio delegates
In our joint session we will be debating issues of common interest to all those involved in and using video and audio measurement. How is the media eco-system evolving in terms of the balance between local and global, between linear and non-linear? Are we looking at more and more walled gardens for content and ad distribution? Where does that leave aggregators of audio and video content? Where does that leave measurement systems attempting to adapt to new technological challenges and the increasing restrictions related to privacy legislation?
Younger audiences are the holy grail for not just media owners and advertisers, but for researchers too. How can we overcome the challenges in recruiting young viewers and listeners to research and ensure they are representative?
2022 International Television & Video Conference
As streaming moves centre-stage in the distribution of content, what are the optimum models for monetisation? Is the SVOD era phasing into one of hybrid models with ad-free and ad-funded tiers? We’ll look at the role of AVOD and of FAST (Free Ad Supported TV) services being launched by new players like Smart TV manufacturers. We’ll be getting fresh insights around the world in terms of the balance between streaming and broadcast, between on-demand and linear and between TV sets and other devices. From a measurement perspective, what are the relative contributions that can be made by first-party data, third-party data and now ‘zero-party’ data?
Our main focus when it comes to advertising will be the contribution audience measurement makes to communications planning. We’ll appraise the latest status of the progress towards the WFA’s North Star for cross-media measurement and look at how data can improve inter-media planning. Could the growing momentum behind attention metrics lead to their use as a currency? How can measurement keep pace with the increasing integration of advertising into content via branded content, dynamic product placement and sponsorship? What opportunities lie in gaming? What opportunities do Smart TVs offer for advertising and measurement? What do the buy and the sell side want from measurement and can these be aligned in a single service? Is the US flirtation with the idea of multiple ‘alt’ currencies a one-off or a sign of things to come?
In our audience measurement sessions, we will be looking at the latest innovations in measurement in the context of the wider direction of travel. With broadcaster-led initiatives to measure linear and VOD campaigns being introduced in a number of markets, what are the implications of services like C-Flight often being independent of the main currency?
With a hive of activity around the world, our methodological focus will be wide-ranging. Emerging early themes include the incorporation of Set Top Box data into live currencies and the opportunities offered by Smart TV data and ACR. A range of decisions need to be taken in terms of the ‘balance’ of video measurement systems: respondent-level databases or APIs?; probabilistic or deterministic methods?
What will the measurement systems of the future look like and how does the media industry need to evolve in terms of skills and infrastructure? With an increasingly central role for modelling and data science, who watches the watchers? Will auditing have an even more vital role to play?
Click on the button below to download a pdf of the agenda.
The 2022 asi International Television & Video Conference was generously sponsored by Nielsen.
4th November 2022, Nice, France
In the unanimous opinion of the judges, the 2022 Tony Twyman Award-winner for Television & Video was Mediapulse AG’s Mirko Marr for his paper ‘Switching to a hybrid TV currency: lessons learned from Switzerland‘. His paper showcased the extent to which this annual conference brings together professionals willing to share their experiences when faced with common problems. You can watch his presentation here, and download a pdf of his paper by clicking on the button below.
Tony Twyman (1932-2014) worked within the media research industry for many years, most recently before he retired operating a consultancy service in media, communications and social research. Tony gained degrees in mathematics and psychology from Cambridge and London Universities and taught experimental psychology at London. During his career he was the Technical Director of BARB and consulted on a number of television industry contracts around the world. He was technical consultant to the independent radio companies for RAJAR. Other consultancies included JICMARS (medical readership). He was formerly a joint managing director of RBL (Research International – London).
Tony was a highly-respected authority in audience measurement worldwide. He chaired the asi European Radio Conference and the research session of the asi European Television Conference for many years and was a much-valued adviser and friend.
Click on the button below to download a pdf of the award-winning paper
1st-5th November 2021, Online
We were again unable to hold the International Radio & Audio and Television & Video Conferences as an in-person event in 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We decided it was not practical or safe for many who would wish to attend, but we wished to give our community the opportunity to link up again and share current work and ideas. We are hopeful that in 2022 we will be able to return to our normal gathering.
We hosted five two/three-hour sessions across five days from Monday 1st to Friday 5th November 2021 starting at 09:30 (London time) each day and released some additional materials (video interviews and presentations) related to the discussions. The sessions were available for catch-up viewing for those who had time-zone challenges.
The agenda is available as a pdf below. Recordings of the five sessions were made available after the event and can be accessed here via a news piece launching our archive website:
2021 asi Virtual Conference – recordings
Our sincere thanks go to those who again kindly supported this virtual event: Comscore, GfK, Ipsos, Kantar, Médiamétrie, Nielsen, RSMB and
Triton Digital.
2nd-6th November 2020, Online
We were unable to hold the International Radio & Audio and Television & Video Conferences as physical events in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We decided it was not practical or safe to do so for many who would wish to attend, but we wished to give our community the opportunity to link up and share work and ideas before what we hoped would be a more normal gathering in 2021. Our solution was to host an online Virtual Conference.
We hosted five two-hour sessions across five days from Monday 2nd to Friday 6th November 2020 starting at 09:30 (London time) each day and released some additional materials (video interviews and presentations) related to the discussions. The sessions were available for catch-up viewing for those who had time-zone challenges.
We did not charge for attendance. It remains a vital time for the media research industry and we felt then that it was important that as many people as possible were able to attend and share ideas. We see this as a service to our community to contribute to the future success of our industry and provide the opportunity to link up and share work and ideas before we are able to host a more normal physical gathering in the future.
The agenda is available as a pdf below. Recordings of the five sessions were made available after the event and can be accessed here:
2020 asi Virtual Conference – recordings
Our sincere thanks go to those who kindly supported this event: Comscore, GfK, Ipsos, Kantar, Médiamétrie, Nielsen, RSMB and
Triton Digital.
6th November 2019, Prague, Czech Republic
The 2019 asi International Radio & Audio Conference was held on 6th November 2019 in Prague, Czech Republic.
The radio industry is entering a new decade in a far healthier state than most would have predicted at its start – including many in the industry itself. This year’s event will be posing questions as to what the audio and radio landscape will look like in the 2020s, where radio will fit within that landscape and what audio and radio measurement techniques will best serve the future development of the industry.
Podcasting is a hot topic and we will have a full session on podcasting as it relates to research and measurement, including pioneering approaches to electronic measurement of actual podcast listening. Talking of electronic measurement, is the portable meter undergoing something of a renaissance? After a few quiet years as a topic at asi, portable meters will be back centre stage as we hear about new services in the Nordics and results from testing in Switzerland and Australia.
Meanwhile, with PPM established in the US for over a decade now, what impact has there been on the radio industry there? We will also have a group of papers looking at how young audiences use audio and the challenges that presents for radio. Radio advertising remains remarkably robust and we’ll be evaluating strong evidence confirming the effectiveness of radio as a vehicle for targeting listeners at the optimum times of the day or week, maximising ROI as a result.
Joint Session for Radio & TV
If the cross-platform wars are largely being won, is cross-media measurement the next logical step? Is the TMAM initiative in the Netherlands, which brings the JICs together, the shape of things to come or a brave experiment? The advertisers are maintaining their pressure for cross-media measurement but three key questions ensue: how can it be achieved, what metric can cover audio, video and text without commoditising them and ‘dumbing down’ media planning and, above all, who pays for it?
Join us in beautiful Prague for a packed agenda in which we promise to leave enough breathing room for debate, networking and knowledge sharing!
Click on the button below to download a pdf of the agenda.
The 2019 International Radio & Audio Conference was generously sponsored by GfK and Triton Digital
6th November 2019, Prague, Czech Republic
For some years now, the asi Television & Video Conference has featured the Tony Twyman Award for best paper. In 2017, we introduced the award for best paper at the International Radio & Audio Conference and this year’s Tony Twyman Award for Radio & Audio was won by Rasmus Kidde of the Danish Broadcasting Corporation. His presentation Youth and Music: usage, curation and discovery examined the role music plays in young peoples’ lives and what the eco-system of music consumption looks like.
The Tony Twyman Award is generously sponsored by
Tony Twyman (1932-2014) worked within the media research industry for many years, most recently before he retired operating a consultancy service in media, communications and social research. Tony gained degrees in mathematics and psychology from Cambridge and London Universities and taught experimental psychology at London. During his career he was the Technical Director of BARB and consulted on a number of television industry contracts around the world. He was technical consultant to the independent radio companies for RAJAR. Other consultancies included JICMARS (medical readership). He was formerly a joint managing director of RBL (Research International – London).
Tony was a highly-respected authority in audience measurement worldwide. He chaired the asi European Radio Conference and the research session of the asi European Television Conference for many years and was a much-valued adviser and friend.
Click on the button below to download a pdf of the award-winning paper
6th-8th November 2019, Prague, Czech Republic
The 2019 asi International Television & Video Conference was held on 6th-8th November 2019 in Prague, Czech Republic.
At the start of this decade we saw a deluge of studies and predictions about what the TV and radio businesses would be like ‘in 2020’. In Prague we will be just a few weeks away, so exactly what state are we in, in terms of the wider audio and video industries and more specifically measurement and data? Are we ready for the new decade?
Joint Session for TV & Radio
If the cross-platform wars are largely being won in terms of expanding TV measurement into Total Video Measurement, then is cross-media measurement the next logical step? Is the TMAM initiative in the Netherlands, which brings the JICs together, the shape of things to come or a brave experiment? The advertisers are maintaining their pressure for cross-media measurement but three key questions ensue: how can it be achieved, what metric can cover audio, video and text without commoditising them and ‘dumbing down’ media planning and, above all, who pays for it?
Television & Video Conference
SVOD remains an important preoccupation for the video and television industry and we’ll be looking at the latest trends in VOD adoption and usage and the implications for broadcasters. Addressable advertising has been hailed as the future of TV advertising for quite some time now, but just how precisely targeted and effective are the systems that have been built now? We will hear case studies from around the world and ask whether the whole concept of addressable and other forms of adtech challenge the assumptions that underpin how we design currency measurement systems. What do advertisers, media agencies and adtech companies feel is required?
At last year’s conference, Steve Wilcox’s paper on the challenges of integrating RPD Set Top Box data into panels (see the presentation here) caused something of a stir and we will look at how those challenges are being overcome in practice in Canada, the US and Switzerland. There is a growing demand for attribution metrics, so we will be asking whether (and how) measurement can move beyond simple presence in the room and handset button pressing to the use of passive measures of presence, attention and involvement.
For the industry currencies, a growing long tail of content, falling response rates and budgetary pressures are converging to drive an increasing dependency on modelling to fill in the holes, but just how far can modelling take us? Are we in danger of handing too much power to the statisticians and black boxes? What are the realistic limitations on how much modelling can replace data collection?
We are increasingly being told that Data Scientists are the new rock and roll stars of the industry, but what exactly differentiates Data Science from research and statistics? We will be setting out to define precisely what ‘Data Science’ is, how it can benefit the video and television industry and hearing from thought leaders in the field along with case studies of its business impact.
See below for the conference agenda.
The 2019 International Television & Video Conference was generously sponsored by Nielsen
8th November 2019, Prague, Czech Republic
For many years now, the asi Television & Video Conference has featured the Tony Twyman Award for best paper. The Award for 2019 was won jointly by Nora Schmitz of Ipsos and Davide Crestani of Auditel. Their presentation A little bit of the spotlight please focussed on the importance of establishment surveys, the essential component to ensure the representativeness of measurement systems and how, as measurement adapts to changes in viewing behaviour, so too must establishment surveys.
The Tony Twyman Award is generously sponsored by
Tony Twyman (1932-2014) worked within the media research industry for many years, most recently before he retired operating a consultancy service in media, communications and social research. Tony gained degrees in mathematics and psychology from Cambridge and London Universities and taught experimental psychology at London. During his career he was the Technical Director of BARB and consulted on a number of television industry contracts around the world. He was technical consultant to the independent radio companies for RAJAR. Other consultancies included JICMARS (medical readership). He was formerly a joint managing director of RBL (Research International – London).
Tony was a highly-respected authority in audience measurement worldwide. He chaired the asi European Radio Conference and the research session of the asi European Television Conference for many years and was a much-valued adviser and friend.
Click on the button below to download a pdf of the award-winning paper
12th-13th September 2019, Lisbon, Portugal
The 2019 International Publishing & Data Conference focused on data at the heart of the publishing industry, data driving audience measurement, advertising effectiveness, content development and revenue models. The conference is an essential event for all those involved in the production of publisher data and those who use that data to make vital business decisions.
Whilst significant challenges for newsbrand and magazine publishers remain, nonetheless there are reasons for optimism. It is becoming increasingly clear that, as opposed to simply managing a gradual transition from profitable print businesses to a less profitable and less differentiated online model, the future is a hybrid, cross-platform one in which print remains valued by many and coexists with publishers’ online efforts.
So how can newsbrands and magazines preserve and demonstrate their unique value to advertisers in such a complex and competitive eco-system? We highlight a number of initiatives that focus on the vital importance of context in enhancing the power of publisher advertising and the unique strength of newsbrands and magazines.
We identify the specific challenges in the online battleground: the strategies needed to have an optimal relationship with digital platforms and social media that widens brand reach without losing brand attribution.
Can we identify, classify and understand newsbrand and magazine audiences in ways that optimise the delivery of content, but also bring publisher audiences to life for advertisers?
How can publisher data best interface with the digital eco-system, a world of APIs, DMPs and programmatic real-time ad placement and trading?
Meanwhile, the debate continues to rage about optimum business models, not just the blend of print and online but revenue models incorporating subscriptions, ad revenue or a hybrid of the two.
Above all, we face a measurement challenge, specifically the cost of tracking publisher brands across multiple platforms. How can we measure more for less? How can we expand currencies across platforms, whilst preserving robust measurement of hardcopy readership? What are pragmatic and acceptable compromises on survey quality?
How will the availability of census data and innovations like AI drive print measurement going forward? Can developments in data science enable us to model more effectively readership of smaller publications? There seems to be a widening gap between newspaper and magazine requirements. Can this gap be filled or should they go their separate ways?
Is the future not just cross-platform measurement but cross-media measurement?
The emphasis in Lisbon was on actionable insights from engaging data experts and users around the world. Our goal is to inspire delegates with new thinking and approaches, with insights you can take back to your own businesses and effect real change.
The 2019 International Publishing & Data Conference was generously sponsored by Ipsos and Kantar.
13th September 2019, Lisbon, Portugal
The Dawn Mitchell Award for best paper at this year’s asi International Publishing & Data Conference was won by Harald Amschler and Jella Hoffmann of WEMF.
In their paper, ‘More for less! More for less? Optimizing the Swiss NRS system’, Harald and Jella explained to delegates the various approaches that had been tried and tested over the last few years to enhance the effectiveness of the Swiss readership survey. They also highlighted the issues they are still struggling with as they continue to develop the project.
Common to everywhere else, the difficulties they face continue to escalate and the increased challenges need to be met despite relentless pressure on research budgets. Even with these financial difficulties WEMF has worked towards a solution that maintains research quality, provides links for cross-media research in the future and provides increased user benefits.
Click on the button below to download a pdf of the award-winning paper
Dawn Mitchell (b.1941) has been a central and highly respected figure in the world of media research for over 40 years. She has held positions as Chief Executive of Research Services, Chair of AMSO, INRA, IRIS and RSMB TV Research and Director at Ipsos MORI, and has lectured on market research around the world.
Dawn founded the Worldwide Readership Research Symposium in 1979, establishing a biennial Symposium to ‘start a dialogue, principally among research practitioners … about the methods we use, the lessons we have learned from experimental work and to discover in what ways we can further the pursuit of knowledge of testing and validating each other’s theories.’ She continued to drive the development of the Symposium as it relaunched as the Publishing & Data Research Forum (PDRF), and her inspiration endures in its current form under the wing of asi as the International Publishing & Data Conference, the first of which was held in Lisbon in 2019.
7th November 2018, Athens, Greece
The momentum behind ‘audio’ shows no sign of slowing. Voice assistants and streaming audio services attract the lion’s share of media coverage but, at the heart of the audio ‘revolution’, radio still accounts for the vast majority of audio consumption and is in prime position to benefit from the opportunities offered by customisation of content and advertising.
This year our audio and video conferences have shared themes, with the emphasis firmly on whether audience measurement remains fit for purpose in the face of changing consumer behaviour and widening definitions of audio and video.
In our first session we look at how radio sits within the current audio landscape: Are audiences fragmenting? How can broadcasters align their broadcast and non-linear audio offerings to best effect? How can their brands maintain relevance and prominence? Is targeted advertising via IP a ‘value add’ or the long-term future for radio advertising?
We then move on to case studies of measurement in action, showcasing innovative new approaches from South Africa, UAE, Australia, Netherlands and Greece. We look at the role that external data sources can play in building hybrid radio measurement and how modelling can be used to enhance or extend measurement coverage.
Our speakers encompass diary and recall approaches, passive electronic measurement, data modelling and Big Data, so it’s appropriate that our final panel of the audio conference focuses on how well we are meeting the new challenge of measuring radio and – potentially – all forms of audio.
Shared challenges – common solutions?
In this year’s joint session, the Radio & Audio and Television & Video Conferences come together to examine the shared challenges faced by measurement and to determine the degree to which the solutions are similar. Youth consumption of both audio and video is put in the spotlight. How alike are the challenges presented to broadcasters by streaming services like Spotify and Netflix? With the BBC launching its CMM electronic cross-media measurement service and the Dutch industry advertising a tender for ‘Total Media Audience Measurement’ are the walls between video and audio measurement about to come tumbling down?
See below for the agenda to the conference.
The 2018 International Radio & Audio Conference was generously sponsored by GfK and Triton Digital.
7th November 2017, Athens, Greece
For some years now, the asi Television & Video Conference has featured the Tony Twyman Award for best paper. Last year, we introduced the award for best paper at the International Radio & Audio Conference and this year’s Tony Twyman Award for Radio & Audio was won by Ian Garland of Milton Data for his presentation City Mouse – Country Mouse: bringing the Big Smoke to the Bush.
The Tony Twyman Award is generously sponsored by
Tony Twyman (1932-2014) worked within the media research industry for many years, most recently before he retired operating a consultancy service in media, communications and social research. Tony gained degrees in mathematics and psychology from Cambridge and London Universities and taught experimental psychology at London. During his career he was the Technical Director of BARB and consulted on a number of television industry contracts around the world. He was technical consultant to the independent radio companies for RAJAR. Other consultancies included JICMARS (medical readership). He was formerly a joint managing director of RBL (Research International – London).
Tony was a highly-respected authority in audience measurement worldwide. He chaired the asi European Radio Conference and the research session of the asi European Television Conference for many years and was a much-valued adviser and friend.
Click on the button below to download a pdf of the award-winning paper
7th-9th November 2018, Athens, Greece
To begin the conference, in this year’s joint session, the Radio & Audio and Television & Video Conferences come together to examine the shared challenges faced by measurement and to determine the degree to which the solutions are similar. Youth consumption of both audio and video is put in the spotlight. How alike are the challenges presented to broadcasters by streaming services like Spotify and Netflix? With the BBC launching its CMM electronic cross-media measurement service and the Dutch industry advertising a tender for ‘Total Media Audience Measurement’ are the walls between video and audio measurement about to come tumbling down?
Is video measurement ready for prime time?
Data has now moved centre stage, driving every aspect of the video business, with IP-delivery enabling direct relationships with viewers. Data has never been more highly prized, which is great news for our industry – but that does mean that the pressure is on. We have to ensure that our data is of the highest quality and is compliant with new data legislation like GDPR. Measurement technology must keep pace with consumer behaviour and continue to meet client needs. Is video measurement still ‘fit for purpose’ and able to meet the challenge?
We evaluate if there are any new technological game changers coming down the line that will fundamentally alter how video is consumed by audiences, or the technology we use to measure. Is Blockchain a game changer for currency measurement?
Just how well do broadcast and online advertising work together? We review the effectiveness of the new advertising opportunities made possible by IP-delivered TV services. Can the impact of context on attention and recall actually be quantified and monetised? What do advertisers really want from video measurement? Is exposure realistically the only agreed common metric, or could an attentiveness metric ever be agreed? What can eye-tracking contribute in measuring attentiveness to screens? Is ‘attention’ a potential new advertising currency?
A key theme at this year’s conference is collaboration. Broadcasters are coming together to meet the SVOD challenge, with talk of new initiatives for cross-broadcaster services in UK, France and Germany. Meanwhile the pressure is on from advertisers for online-only players like Facebook and Google to collaborate with broadcasters on video currency measurement, but what compromises are needed for that to happen? Can common metrics be agreed that allow us to compare broadcast advertising with online and social video?
Hybrid methodologies also require increased collaboration between rival research agencies and external data suppliers. Do clients really want measurement companies to be ‘one stop shops’ providing end-to-end services, or are they just cherry-picking what each company is best at?
Are the measurement companies actually focusing their development in the right areas? Hybrid approaches enable content reach across platforms, but will they be able to deliver when it comes to measuring advertising, increasingly divorced from that content? With OTT services and broadcaster players primarily viewed on the TV set itself, is the TV once more the priority for development of measurement technology?
In our final panel we will be tying these themes together to evaluate: is video measurement fit for purpose?
See below for the conference agenda.
The 2018 International Television & Video Conference was generously sponsored by Nielsen
9th November 2018, Athens, Greece
For some years now, the asi International Television & Video Conference has featured the Tony Twyman Award for best paper. The 2018 Award was won by Julien Rosanvallon of Médiamétrie for his presentation Making four-screen measurement fit for purpose.
The Tony Twyman Award is generously sponsored by
Tony Twyman (1932-2014) worked within the media research industry for many years, most recently before he retired operating a consultancy service in media, communications and social research. Tony gained degrees in mathematics and psychology from Cambridge and London Universities and taught experimental psychology at London. During his career he was the Technical Director of BARB and consulted on a number of television industry contracts around the world. He was technical consultant to the independent radio companies for RAJAR. Other consultancies included JICMARS (medical readership). He was formerly a joint managing director of RBL (Research International – London).
Tony was a highly-respected authority in audience measurement worldwide. He chaired the asi European Radio Conference and the research session of the asi European Television Conference for many years and was a much-valued adviser and friend.
Click on the button below to download a pdf of the award-winning paper
10th-11th May 2018, Singapore
Video audience measurement has never had a higher profile than at present. Intense debate focuses around the way in which video audiences are measured, defined, compared across platforms and verified. That’s because video in its myriad formats is the dominant form of digital media.
Usage data informs billions of dollars of decisions around investment in content and the development of new video technology. It underpins the trading currencies and the perceived relative importance and effectiveness for advertisers of broadcast, social video and VOD in its many forms.
The critical role of robust and reliable video measurement has been amplified by recent industry initiatives focused on transparency and accountability. This year’s APAC Television & Video Conference will highlight the challenges video measurement faces and explore how new measurement systems are being deployed and used. It will be a forum for high-level delegates from all areas of the video eco-system to debate and network: broadcasters, content owners, media agencies and social video companies.
Our first session on Thursday focuses on Innovation in Video, with the emphasis on content. We will be looking at trends across the region in terms of video consumption – what are the growing formats and how is cross-platform usage evolving? How well does audience measurement suit the needs of the sports industry? We will be looking at shortform video in China, how broadcasters are maximising the opportunities presented by VOD and the rise of subscription VOD.
Our next session then has Video Advertising very much as its focus. We’ll be hearing from Unilever about why the World Federation of Advertisers has made 2018 its year of transparency. Our subsequent papers focus on key aspects of new advertising opportunities, with a particular emphasis on transparency. We will be looking at the uses and abuses of programmatic trading, how advertising works across broadcast and online, the practical implications of viewability and the opportunities offered by AI technology to unlock the power of social video.
Day two of the event puts video measurement at the centre of the stage. In the morning session we will be exploring the science of audience measurement and in the afternoon its application in the real world.
The Friday morning session focuses on Audience Measurement. We will explore the logistics of managing the world’s largest TV measurement panel in India, how the first fruits of the new Singapore TAM system are being harvested and a new cost-effective approach to expanding meter panel sizes. We will be looking beyond simple exposure to the implications of measuring ‘eyes on screen’ and getting updates from the global measurement companies on their latest developments and priorities.
Our final session examines Total Video Measurement in Practice. Over the last few conferences we have been able to track the evolution and implementation of new cross-platform video currencies, often referred to as ‘Total Video Measurement’ or ‘Total Content Ratings’. With some of these systems now launched and in the market, how is the industry accepting and using the data? Is it what the clients were hoping for? Are there winners and losers? What are the practical politics of Total Video Measurement?
See below for the agenda to this year’s conference.
The 2018 APAC Television & Video Conference was generously sponsored by GfK, Nielsen and Google
8th November 2017, Nice, France
2017 may be remembered as the year in which Voice Assistants like Amazon Echo and Google Home started to become established as an integral part of everyday life. It may also be remembered as the start of a move from an obsession with screens to an appreciation of audio as the perfect medium for a multi-tasking, always-on digital world. At this year’s conference we hear the latest research on voice assistants, which underlines the key role that audio content – and radio in particular – plays for early adopters of this new technology.
However, voice assistants can also be seen as a response to an increasingly ‘on demand’ world. Live radio remains highly robust as it serves the needs for information, connection and discovery, but how can non-linear radio services best complement live content? What forms of content (and advertising) best suit live, podcasting and on-demand audio? In particular what combination will most effectively attract the younger audiences that broadcast radio is struggling to maintain?
Streaming radio offers new opportunities for personalised, targeted communication and we hear how radio is innovating in offering highly-targeted niche services in an effective way. Meanwhile advanced advertising services via IP are now a reality and proving highly successful.
Innovation in radio demands innovation in radio measurement. We share the latest thinking in both meter measurement and online diary approaches. We hear about new systems in markets as diverse as UAE and Switzerland and discover how radio data can be aligned to sales data to demonstrate its power in brand building and activation.
Joint Session: Radio & Audio and TV & Video
In 2017 the importance to the advertising industry of independently verified, accountable measurement has taken on an extremely high profile. P&G has been the most vocal advertiser in claiming that online data has been at best inconsistent and at worst actively misleading.
In the UK, ISBA (advertisers) and IPA (agencies) have teamed up to demand greater transparency and accountability. P&G have publicly set a target of not using unaudited systems by the end of the year. In our joint session we ask: how close is the industry to meeting advertiser expectations? Can industry currencies take the moral high ground in providing transparent and accountable measurement or will their future lie more in setting guidelines and checking standards for others to follow?
The 2017 International Radio & Audio Conference is sponsored by Triton Digital
8th November 2017, Nice, France
For some years now, the asi Television & Video Conference has featured the Tony Twyman Award for best paper. This year, for the first time, we introduce the Tony Twyman Award for the best paper at the International Radio & Audio Conference. The first Tony Twyman Award for Radio & Audio was won by Lena Brun of Finnpanel and Ricardo Gomez-Insausti of Numeris for their joint presentation Searching for the optimal radio diary concept – experiences from Canada and Finland.
The Tony Twyman Award is generously sponsored by
Tony Twyman (1932-2014) worked within the media research industry for many years, most recently before he retired operating a consultancy service in media, communications and social research. Tony gained degrees in mathematics and psychology from Cambridge and London Universities and taught experimental psychology at London. During his career he was the Technical Director of BARB and consulted on a number of television industry contracts around the world. He was technical consultant to the independent radio companies for RAJAR. Other consultancies included JICMARS (medical readership). He was formerly a joint managing director of RBL (Research International – London).
Tony was a highly-respected authority in audience measurement worldwide. He chaired the asi European Radio Conference and the research session of the asi European Television Conference for many years and was a much-valued adviser and friend.
Click on the button below to download a pdf of the award-winning paper
8th-10th November 2017, Nice, France
Session 1: Joint Session – for delegates attending the Radio & Audio and TV & Video Conferences
In 2017 the importance to the advertising industry of independently verified, accountable measurement has taken on an extremely high profile. P&G has been the most vocal advertiser in claiming that online data has been at best inconsistent and at worst actively misleading.
In the UK, ISBA (advertisers) and IPA (agencies) have teamed up to demand greater transparency and accountability. P&G has publicly set a target of not using unaudited systems by the end of the year. In our joint session we ask: how close is the industry to meeting advertiser expectations? Can industry currencies take the moral high ground in providing transparent and accountable measurement or will their future lie more in setting guidelines and checking standards for others to follow?
Session 2: Innovation
We have been tracking trends in TV innovation over the last two decades at asi, with a particular emphasis on the implications for how we measure television and video audiences themselves. Over the years the focus has shifted from digital switchover, to HD and UHD, to IP delivery to connected screens and migration beyond the TV sets to mobile screens. So what current innovations are likely to resonate with consumers and which are likely to fall by the way?
We look at how broadcasters are innovating to respond to the SVOD challenge. How can the bundled approach of satellite and cable operators stay relevant in a world of IP delivery directly to apps? Voice Assistants like Amazon Echo and Google Home have the potential to fundamentally change how we interact with video in the first place. Are we moving from a world of remote controls, buttons and touch screens to a ‘frictionless’ future? What implications does this have for User Interfaces? How will channels and content be accessed and discovered in an era of voice assistance, artificial intelligence and machine learning? Will consumers find these innovations essential or just fundamentally creepy? What are the implications for advertisers and broadcasters?
Session 3: The video advertising challenge
Broadcast advertising is arguably a known quantity. Innovations like addressable targeting and second-screen syncing continue to enhance its impact, but essentially its strengths are known and understood. However, violent debate continues to rage around the attractions and pitfalls of online video.
We showcase the latest thinking on how both online video and broadcast advertising work – where do they differ and how do they complement each other? What do advertisers and agencies want from online video measurement specifically? We hear from advertisers, agencies and the online giants.
Personalisation and precise targeting is the ‘holy grail’, but with GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) imminent, what will happen when privacy meets relevancy?
Session 4: The measurement challenge
On the Thursday morning, we explore the latest thinking in the construction of TV and video measurement systems. Is audio watermarking and fingerprinting still the default for broadcast measurement? Will we always be dependent on tags and codes to measure online video? What advances are being made in fusing survey panels to online census data? Is Return Path Data from boxes and servers now an essential ingredient of a TAM system, or can Set Meter panels solve the challenge of fragmenting audiences? We hear perspectives from the measurement companies and the TAM services themselves.
Session 5: A Total Video currency?
Over the last few years we have tracked the measurement industry gradually assembling the toolkit needed to measure online video to the same standards as broadcast. So when it comes to currency measurement is marriage now on the cards, or will television and online video just remain ‘best friends’? A number of countries have now launched ‘total video’ currencies but their scope can vary, with the priority remaining the measurement of broadcaster content across different platforms. We compare and contrast approaches to ‘total video’ being adopted in Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands.
It is increasingly being argued that online video advertising works in a very different, more immediate, way to broadcast advertising. Does this imply that different metrics may be required for the evaluation of advertising impact, or can we agree on a common, logical measure for television and video? Above all, is it realistic to aspire to a total video currency – that is, centralised measurement of all video content and all video advertising? Is a total video currency more of an imperative for planning than it is for trading in an increasingly automated system? Our final debate examines these issues with a panel of stakeholders in currency measurement leading the audience to debate ‘who really needs a total video currency?’
The 2017 International Television & Video Conference is sponsored by Nielsen
10th November 2017, Nice, France
For some years now, the asi Television & Video Conference has featured the Tony Twyman Award for best paper. The 2017 Award was won by Brian Fuhrer of Nielsen for his presentation Streams turn into a river: OTT impact on the US television landscape.
The Tony Twyman Award is generously sponsored by
Tony Twyman (1932-2014) worked within the media research industry for many years, most recently before he retired operating a consultancy service in media, communications and social research. Tony gained degrees in mathematics and psychology from Cambridge and London Universities and taught experimental psychology at London. During his career he was the Technical Director of BARB and consulted on a number of television industry contracts around the world. He was technical consultant to the independent radio companies for RAJAR. Other consultancies included JICMARS (medical readership). He was formerly a joint managing director of RBL (Research International – London).
Tony was a highly-respected authority in audience measurement worldwide. He chaired the asi European Radio Conference and the research session of the asi European Television Conference for many years and was a much-valued adviser and friend.
Click on the button below to download a pdf of the award-winning paper
11th-12th May 2017, Singapore
Whilst the media obsesses about ‘Fake News’ and ‘Alternative Facts’, it’s all the more important that the systems we use to measure TV and video behaviour are fit for purpose. In an era in which video content is exploding across multiple platforms and devices, it is become harder and harder for traditional research methodologies to keep pace.
Meanwhile, transparency is fast becoming a buzzword in the media, not just in terms of agency trading practices but also with regard to the data measurement systems themselves. The political polling industry has had a difficult year, but arguably the stakes are even higher when it comes to media measurement: the data used for measuring video are estimates, but billions of dollars are traded and invested based on those estimates, so it is critical that those estimates are the best they can be.
This is where asi conferences play a vital role: they are an essential forum for the industry to discuss what the priorities are for video measurement, to share best practice and be inspired by innovation in video research and data.
This forum for innovation is even more essential in the APAC region, in which younger-skewing markets are driving the rise of mobile and OTT, whilst there is a huge opportunity for both local and global players in broadcast and VOD content.
Consequently, this year our APAC Conference focused on four main themes:
Content goes global
We looked at trends in content consumption globally and across the region, both in terms of genre and platform. What do content owners, platforms and advertisers need from audience measurement across the APAC region? To what extent do OTT services represent a threat to traditional pay-TV? How can brands measure attribution for their content? We heard from, amongst others, PwC, the BBC World Service, AIPRO, GfK and Eurodata Worldwide.
Television and video – the advertising challenge
Is a lack of transparency undermining the future prospects of online video? With video being consumed in so many ways, what are the key measures to assess effectiveness across the various devices? How can new RPD services and sophisticated data fusion techniques drive efficiency in media planning and buying? What are the opportunities for OTT, whether linear, SVOD and AVOD? What is the likely future shape of consumer consumption of linear vs on-demand and of paid versus advertiser-funded content?
The cross-platform measurement challenge
Arguably the biggest single challenge for currency measurement systems is the need to measure TV content outside the TV set, and yet still tie that viewing back to the original broadcast to provide total reach across platforms. The conference included insights from a number of markets, including India, China, Japan, Australia, Singapore and Thailand about cross-platform innovation in measurement.
Online video metrics
How do we define online viewing in a logical way? Should we simply be ensuring conformity with the definitions we have been using for TV viewing or is online video a different beast entirely? We tackled the vital issues of viewability and viewing duration: can a 4-second online video view really be compared to a minute of broadcast viewing? As advertisers start to question the online data they are seeing, how can we ensure that the methodologies and definitions we use will maintain their faith in video as a medium across all platforms? Transparency and accountability was a major theme at the 2017 APAC asi Conference.
2nd November 2016, Budapest, Hungary
On the face of it, audio remains in rude health, an attractive proposition for listeners and advertisers alike. However, the long-term future of radio and other forms of audio is very much in the hands of millennials, that key group born between about 1980 and 2000. Their radio listening levels are declining. To a certain extent this is being offset by the continued loyalty of older groups. So the key question has to be: will millennials become increasingly dependent on radio as they get older or will they take their current profile of audio consumption with them into later life? Will they differentiate between radio and other forms of audio in the way past generations have done?
Either way, it is clear that radio is now very much part of a wider thriving audio landscape and is increasingly as much a digital medium as the new streaming and on demand services. So, what is the optimum approach to measuring radio and audio across digital platforms and in this wider context? This year, a number of presentations look at audio in this broader playing field, with implications not just for the listener but also the trading of audio itself.
2nd-4th November, Budapest, Hungary
Global sporting events like this year’s Rio Olympics serve not only to bring the world together in troubling times, but also act as a useful insight into the evolving shape of TV consumption itself. Cross-media cross-platform events also push the current capabilities of audience measurement systems to their limit. At this year’s conference we look to the future of television and video and examine how the industry can keep up the pace in the measurement marathon.
The production of high quality TV content is at a global high as broadcasters, expanding the global reach of their hit series and formats, compete with SVOD services keen to join the party. We examine the trends in content production and discuss the future prospects for content distribution channels.
It’s clear that video is a highly attractive and effective medium for advertising and we hear about a number of innovations in advertising technology. However, we also remind ourselves that, in the rush to examine sales impact, the longer-term effects of advertising are critical.
Meanwhile, if we are living in a ‘golden age’ of TV content, what category of medal can we award television measurement itself? There does now seem to be a clear consensus around the way forward, with hybrid approaches in development or at the commissioning stage in many countries. The main debates are now focusing on exactly how to apply the measurement science and the precise components.
What building blocks are needed to build cross-platform measurement across connected devices? Census data is obviously a crucial component, but it is less clear how accessible that data will be, particularly data from social media platforms. In a key panel discussion, we examine the prospects for industry collaboration between ‘traditional’ television and new media: whose data is it anyway?
4th November, Budapest, Hungary
For some years now, the asi Television Conference has featured the Tony Twyman Award for best paper. The 2016 Award was won by Nathalie Sonck of SKO and Liesbeth Nekkers of GfK for their presentation Solving the Viewing Puzzle – Assessing Reach of SVOD content on the Big Screen.
The Tony Twyman Award is generously sponsored by
Tony Twyman (1932-2014) worked within the media research industry for many years, most recently before he retired operating a consultancy service in media, communications and social research. Tony gained degrees in mathematics and psychology from Cambridge and London Universities and taught experimental psychology at London. During his career he was the Technical Director of BARB and consulted on a number of television industry contracts around the world. He was technical consultant to the independent radio companies for RAJAR. Other consultancies included JICMARS (medical readership). He was formerly a joint managing director of RBL (Research International – London).
Tony was a highly-respected authority in audience measurement worldwide. He chaired the asi European Radio Conference and the research session of the asi European Television Conference for many years and was a much-valued adviser and friend.
Click on the button below to download a pdf of the award-winning paper
12th-13th May, Singapore
RATINGS LEGO: A REPORT FROM THE SECOND asi APAC TELEVISION & VIDEO CONFERENCE IN SINGAPORE
By Richard Marks, Research Director, asi.
In the past the research industry in the region may have looked primarily to the west, but the second asi APAC Television & Video Conference confirmed that, with the dizzying pace of technology adoption in the region, the exchange of information is now much more of a two-way discussion.
The APAC region is projected to account for two-thirds of the world’s affluent middle class by 2030, so understanding exactly how video is being used in the region, and how that changes over time will be vital for the global future of broadcasters and online players.
Measurement has never been a dry topic and, with the explosion of new services and platforms, it has never been more vital. Reliable measurement is essential to allow video services to be monetised – to attract advertising and help understand what content drives subscription to OTT services.
The event was held in Singapore and sponsored by GFK and Nielsen with the support of CASBAA. The focus was on TV measurement in the APAC region but also at a global level, so worked as a useful ‘health check’ on the state of TV and video measurement around the world.
A major theme was the increasing globalisation of content and formats.
Eurodata Worldwide presented global trends in content viewing, showing the increasing demand for drama as a genre and the rise of new formats – 900 new TV shows were launched in Asia in 2015. In the so-called ‘Platinum Age’ of television there is a global demand for new content and formats. At a global level the top exporters of TV in 2016 were US and UK, but French (3rd) and Turkish (5th) programming and formats are also on the rise.
Parrot Analytics went beyond TV viewing in a paper presented with the BBC to look at how the global demand for programming can be measured by looking at the ‘ocean’ of social media and online activity around content.
We heard that in January 2016 Sherlock was the most in-demand programme in China and social buzz identified an untapped market for Doctor Who in Korea. So the future may be about evaluating ‘share of mind’ as well as counting eyeballs.
Looking specifically at online video, we saw data from Korea that claimed that ad recall and impact was higher for VOD than linear advertising, whilst Facebook examined what makes ‘thumb-stopping’ online video and in particular the importance of the first few seconds of a video to capture interest and brand awareness.
Google’s Georges Mao, Director of Market Insights APAC, outlines the company’s strategy for brand measurement.
Google outlined its strategy for brand measurement, which seems to indicate a higher willingness to collaborate with industry measurement services, whilst building its own data systems to sit alongside.
Meanwhile a fascinating paper looked at Australian TV data to demonstrate that classifying a segment of the population as ‘light viewers’ can be misleading – light viewers can be heavy on some days and when their online and non-linear viewing is added in many cease to be ‘light viewers’ at all.
So filling the ‘holes’ in measurement is essential, and was another key theme of the conference. The event underlined the rise of hybrid measurement, but also reflected an understanding that ‘one size does not fit all’.
There are a number of hybrid TV and video measurement systems in development around the world: everyone seems to be playing ratings ‘lego’. Nearly all the systems under development that we heard about at the conference are effectively ‘hybrid’ systems – integrating TV panels, online panels and census (or server) data to build TV measurement across platforms and screens. (Click here for the review of these systems I presented at the conference – click here for the audio.)
In that context BARB is using a broad approach that is being introduced in a number of countries, which should be reassuring to us in the UK. However the methodologies being used do vary and the pace of progress in implementation varies even more.
Nielsen’s system in the US looks the closest to completion, with broadcasters currently trialling data from a hybrid panel that combines TV meters online panels and demographic data from Facebook.
Meanwhile the systems in Netherlands and Sweden are well advanced and may actually prove more of a template for measurement in the APAC region – and around the world – than the US and UK systems.
Although people still lament that the BARB panel is ‘only’ 5,000 homes, in global terms this does place it as something of an outlier. Most countries typically have TV panels of 800-2,000 homes. As a result these are not proving large enough to provide an estimate of online viewing and that data will need to be sourced from separate internet panels, which is the model that the Dutch and Swedish systems are following. Also both are at a more advanced stage of development than the UK.
Romil Ramgarhia, Chief Business Officer of BARC India, indicated to conference the collaborative approach BARC is adopting.
BARC in India is in the process of awarding contracts for digital video measurement in an ambitious system that will encompass all forms of online video and advertising, not just broadcast-related, to go live next year. Meanwhile new television measurement systems are under construction in Thailand and Singapore.
Nonetheless, as of writing, not one country in the region or indeed anywhere in the world can claim to be conducting currency measurement of all broadcast and online video content and advertising across all platforms and devices. We are tantalisingly close though.
It is also significant that these services describe themselves as ‘video’ rather than just ‘TV’ measurement systems. For these hybrid systems to evolve, collaboration is needed. In particular television companies are going to have to be less defensive and resistant to the involvement of the major digital players – access to their datasets will be increasingly important for the hybrid systems to work. Will BARB ever be able to adequately measure all video content in the UK without the active involvement of Facebook and Google?
There was some debate in the various panel sessions about what the optimum organisational models for measuring video actually were. There seems to be a general consensus that the JIC (Joint Industry Committee) model is the best means for building an open system and engaging with stakeholders. However, can decision-making by ‘committee’ act as a handbrake on rapid change and innovation? Again, are broadcasters doing enough to reach out to new media companies like Facebook, YouTube and Netflix?
The asi APAC conference demonstrated that the barriers between the worlds of broadcast and video are coming down. For younger consumers the genealogy of a media brand is largely irrelevant: it’s what they do now that matters and APAC is a particularly young region in terms of its age profile.
In some regards a trip to Asia is a trip into the future of media consumption, a future in which mobile plays an increasing role, with an even playing field for all forms of video.
The conference was generously sponsored by GfK and Nielsen, and was supported by CASBAA.
asi will be back in Singapore next year on 11th-12th May 2017 but in the meantime returns to Europe later this year for the three day International Radio Conference on 2nd November, and the International Television & Video Conference on 2nd-3rd November in Budapest, Hungary.
4th November 2015, Venice, Italy
Delegates who attended the 2015 asi European Radio Conference will have been sent a link by email to access the presentations via Dropbox.
If, as a delegate, you have not received the link, please send us an email or call +44 (0)1822 618 628.
4th-6th November 2015, Venice, Italy
Delegates who attended the 2015 asi European Television Conference will have received a link to access the presentations via Dropbox.
If, as a delegate, you have not received the link, please send us an email or call +44 (0)1822 618 628.
6th November 2015
For some years now, the asi Television Conference has featured the Tony Twyman Award for best paper. The 2015 Award was won by Nielsen’s Megan Clarken, who gave a comprehensive account of the introduction of Nielsen Total Audience Measurement to continue to improve the US TAM service: Unduplicated ratings across all screens, platforms and distribution models
The Tony Twyman Award is generously sponsored by
Tony Twyman (1932-2014) worked within the media research industry for many years, most recently before he retired operating a consultancy service in media, communications and social research. Tony gained degrees in mathematics and psychology from Cambridge and London Universities and taught experimental psychology at London. During his career he was the Technical Director of BARB and consulted on a number of television industry contracts around the world. He was technical consultant to the independent radio companies for RAJAR. Other consultancies included JICMARS (medical readership). He was formerly a joint managing director of RBL (Research International – London).
Tony was a highly-respected authority in audience measurement worldwide. He chaired the asi European Radio Conference and the research session of the asi European Television Conference for many years and was a much-valued adviser and friend.
Click on the button below to download a pdf of the award-winning paper
14th-15th May 2015, Singapore
Summary by Richard Marks, Research Director, asi
In Europe the asi conference has been a fixture in the TV measurement calendar for many years. However, this APAC event was new and in response to popular demand. Some clear themes emerged from the packed agenda and I will attempt to summarise them here.
The main measurement players attended and spoke – indeed Kantar, Nielsen and comScore were joint sponsors. Significantly, whilst all claimed to be offering total solutions to TV measurement, all also indicated a willingness to collaborate, to work with the TV industry bodies around the world to build systems that may involve co-operation with other measurement companies. This is a significant development very much driven by market necessity.
Until recently, BARB was something of an anomaly in blending multiple contractors – currently Kantar, IPSOS and RSMB – to provide the total service. However, many of the clients present at asi APAC discussed their plans for – or deployment of – multi-contractor systems. MMS in Sweden, guest speakers at the event, and BARC in India (the new Joint Industry Committee for TV measurement) are building multi-contractor systems, cherry-picking items from the TAM suppliers as well as related technology companies to build a la carte systems as opposed to the fixed menus that the TAM suppliers would probably prefer.
The new Indian TAM systems involved over twenty partners and in Singapore itself the Media Development Authority – described as Ofcom fused with the BFI – is in the process of a tender to develop a new TV measurement service and in a closing address to the conference Kenneth Tan (recorded by a TV news crew for the evening news bulletin) teased that an announcement was imminent and the contract would be awarded to “one…or more!” of the agencies in the room.
So just as the future of TV measurement seems to lie in hybrid methodologies it may also involve a fusion of research and technology suppliers. When I was actively involved as a TAM supplier it was the norm for research agency sales pitches to feature global maps with countries lovingly coloured TNS pink, Nielsen blue or GFK orange depending on their TAM service. It would seem that more subtle shades of purple and jade will be needed for such maps in the future.
Reflecting this trend, asi APAC was the first TV measurement event since the global partnership between comScore and Kantar was announced, with the latter taking around 20% in comScore stock and the announced objective to provide an integrated approach to measuring online and offline media.
Both Kantar and comScore speakers trailed the first fruits of this alliance – ‘Total View’ at the event. So collaboration is the new normal, although it will make event organisers in the specific case of comScore and Kantar wonder whether it will be fair on their rivals to have separate papers from both suppliers if they are now joined at the hip.
Another noticeable trend was the number of speakers who cited the help and assistance they had received from BARB in the UK. We tend to blithely say that BARB ‘sets the standard’ in TV measurement but this event certainly reinforced this as speakers queued up to pay tribute.
Indeed, I was reminded of the numerous fact-finding trips made to Washington DC in the early 90s by new East European democracies looking to establish a constitution and learning about the American model. However, given the recent deadlock in the American body politic, let’s hope they eventually opted for something else. It is reassuring – from a UK perspective – to witness at first-hand the esteem in which our UK system is still held, even if the speed of progress may not be as fast as some critics would like.
Many other topics were discussed. For example it was claimed that in India buying a second TV for the home was as much of a family revolution as announcing that a second kitchen was being installed – the family that watches together stays together.
China too is having the debate about the relationship between social media and TV viewing, whilst there are a number of highly advanced Return Path Data systems in the region, including Astro in Malaysia, partly driven by frustration at small sample sizes for systems that have been developed to measure terrestrial TV.
One paper on the incredible amount paid for Premier League Football in the region helped me understand exactly how Chelsea can afford to pay Eden Hazard £200k per week.
However, my final theme is a more ‘existential one’: highlighted in this region, but of global relevance.
At asi APAC there seemed to be universal approval of the joint industry approach to measurement, although not what to call that system. Whether JIC, JIB, MOC or even PPICNIC, the principle of jointly funded audience measurement was the same. However, there was far less accord on what those systems should actually be measuring.
This article has used the term ‘television’ throughout, but there were strong arguments made from the stage that this term is too narrow – that we now live in the video measurement era – from TAM to VAM as one chart put it. I have argued in the past that there is some fundamental difference between quality ‘television’ and wider online video, but then I am over 50 and that differentiation was increasingly irrelevant according to many speakers.
A number of countries in the region have populations with average ages of less than 30, so what broadcasters used to do in the past is of historic interest only, it’s what they do now that matters and the new competitive set does include Netflix, YouTube, Amazon and Apple, whether broadcasters like it or not.
So the question now is, should these companies be encouraged into the JIC system and how much longer can measurement be limited to a self-defined perimeter of what is – and isn’t TV? Last month the German JIC, AGF, announced that it would be measuring YouTube within the ‘TAM’ currency system and I suspect that will be the first of many.
As MMS from Sweden have argued, it may be better to have the new entrants in the video market inside the tent (I won’t use the full metaphor) than to give the false impression of measuring a declining medium, constrained only by its self-imposed definition.
Indeed yesterday in the States the Cable TV Advertising Bureau rebranded to become the Video Advertising Bureau. I wonder what odds you could get on BARB becoming VARB in the next five years
I left the asi APAC event with a definite impression that whilst in the past researchers in the region may have looked to the West to guide development of measurement systems, the rapid pace of change in the region and the adoption of mobile in particular may make the exchange of information more balanced in the future, particularly when it comes to a more open appraisal of what is – and isn’t – television.
Certainly the plan for asi is to ensure that the two annual events – in Europe and now in the APAC region – shape and inform each other. This November sees asi celebrate its 25th anniversary in Venice, swapping vertiginous skyscrapers for campaniles and canals. If you’d like to give us your view from the stage then do get in touch.
The debate continues.
Click on the button below to download a pdf of the conference programme
15th May 2015, Singapore
The Tony Twyman Award for the conference paper that made ‘the best contribution to a greater understanding of the TV medium and its audiences’ has been presented at the asi European Television Conference since 2007. This first APAC Tony Twyman Award was won by Magnus Anshelm, CEO of MMS, for his paper: The MMS Road Map – Towards a Total Video Currency
The 2015 APAC Tony Twyman Award was generously sponsored by
Tony Twyman (1932-2014) worked within the media research industry for many years, most recently before he retired operating a consultancy service in media, communications and social research. Tony gained degrees in mathematics and psychology from Cambridge and London Universities and taught experimental psychology at London. During his career he was the Technical Director of BARB and consulted on a number of television industry contracts around the world. He was technical consultant to the independent radio companies for RAJAR. Other consultancies included JICMARS (medical readership). He was formerly a joint managing director of RBL (Research International – London).
Tony was a highly-respected authority in audience measurement worldwide. He chaired the asi European Radio Conference and the research session of the asi European Television Conference for many years and was a much-valued adviser and friend.
Click on the button below to download a pdf of the award-winning paper
5th November 2014, Madrid, Spain
Extract from piece by Richard Marks, Research Director, asi
One clear theme, reflected in this year’s agenda, is that radio and TV face similar measurement challenges in terms of the need for cross-platform brand measurement and the challenges and opportunities of online data sets. To that end, a joint session titled ‘The Tools of the Trade’ saw panels of suppliers and clients compare notes on what they thought really matters. You can see a report on the session here.
The radio day focused on the existential challenge of putting radio in the wider context of other audio services, particularly streaming. The RAB’s AudioNow project showed that radio remains strong, but as the Harkive initiative demonstrated, modern listeners “use a range of technologies, formats, and services, and bounce from one to another with incredible speed and dexterity.”
A central point of debate for both TV and radio is whether the behaviour of 15-24 year olds – amongst whom both TV and radio are seeing more noticeable drops in usage – is a usage pattern that they will carry with them through their lives or something they will adapt as they get older.
Using RAJAR data, IPSOS’s John Carroll pointed out that “By the age of 25 you’ve listened to 10% of the radio you’ll hear in your lifetime”. A lot is riding on whether this statement is true for both the radio and TV industries.
What I do and like now as a 50 year old is very different to when I was 25, but if I were to tell a passing hoodie, “You have listened to 5% of all the Bruce Springsteen you’ll hear in your lifetime,” they might claim that free will overcomes pre-destination. Or they might hit me. Danish Radio’s Peter Niegel described this cohort as both Generation Z (Zero attention span) and Generation HD (heads down on mobile devices).
Click on the button below to download a pdf of the conference programme
5th-7th November 2014, Madrid, Spain
Summary of the 2014 European Radio & Television Conferences by Richard Marks, Research Director, asi
Last week the great and the good in audience measurement met for the 24th annual asi European Television and Radio Conferences in Madrid. The event is an important barometer for what’s pre-occupying the broadcast research industries.
I’ve attended the event for a decade and earlier this year I came on board as research director for asi with an active involvement in getting this year’s event together and chairing sessions. In this column I’ll share the key take-outs from across the three days.
One clear theme, reflected in the agenda, is that radio and TV face similar measurement challenges in terms of the need for cross-platform brand measurement and the challenges and opportunities of online data sets. To that end, a joint session titled ‘The Tools of the Trade’ saw panels of suppliers and clients compare notes on what they thought really matters.
The radio day focused on the existential challenge of putting radio in the wider context of other audio services, particularly streaming. The RAB’s AudioNow project showed that radio remains strong, but as the Harkive initiative demonstrated, modern listeners “use a range of technologies, formats, and services, and bounce from one to another with incredible speed and dexterity.”
A central point of debate for both TV and radio is whether the behaviour of 15-24 year olds – amongst whom both TV and radio are seeing more noticeable drops in usage – is a usage pattern that they will carry with them through their lives or something they will adapt as they get older.
Using RAJAR data, IPSOS’s John Carroll pointed out that “By the age of 25 you’ve listened to 10% of the radio you’ll hear in your lifetime”. A lot is riding on whether this statement is true for both the radio and TV industries.
What I do and like now as a 50 year old is very different to when I was 25, but if I were to tell a passing hoodie, “You have listened to 5% of all the Bruce Springsteen you’ll hear in your lifetime,” they might claim that free will overcomes pre-destination. Or they might hit me. Danish Radio’s Peter Niegel described this cohort as both Generation Z (Zero attention span) and Generation HD (heads down on mobile devices).
For TV, it really does seem that a consensus has emerged around hybrid measurement – combining survey research with server data to get the best of both worlds. The ‘F’ word – fusion – was everywhere this year.
At last year’s asi I used the metaphor of Schroedinger’s Cat to crystallise some of my concerns about hybrid measurement – that transparency will recede and we may become increasingly dependent on the statisticians, who guard the black boxes that bring the data together, to tell us whether the measurement cat is alive or dead.
This asi conference did go some way to allaying some of the concerns. When I asked the global measurement companies directly whether intellectual property issues would inhibit the transparency of their services, they seemed almost insulted at the idea and described a harmonious world of openness with clients and talked about glass boxes as opposed to black boxes. This is important as Tanja Hackenbruch of Swiss Broadcaster SBC called for the establishment of an open ‘data culture’ to help clients understand the plethora of data sets available.
Two nagging questions remain – if we had a blank slate, is this really what we would do? And is anyone doing hybrid successfully yet?
With regard to the second point, it seems we have a big year coming up. In Holland the VIM (Video Integration Model) is underway, whilst BARB have commissioned two measurement companies to take place in a ‘Great British Fuse Off’ to develop an integration model for Project Dovetail. We are getting tantalisingly close to knowing whether the hybrid theories will work in practice.
Dissenting views or proponents of single source solutions were hard to find, although there were some fascinating early insights from the Google/Médiamétrie single source panel in France. Early days, but the French data hinted that the incidence of dual screening may be overstated. From that survey, in an average day, 16.4% of panel members did watch TV and use the Internet simultaneously, but only for six minutes.
Continuing the theme of surprisingly low numbers, BARB shared early data from the growing number of BARB homes (currently over 1,000) that have PC viewing metered as well as TV. 10% watch TV content on PCs in an average week and if they do watch it’s about 25 minutes a week – so that adds less than 1% to total viewing. OK, this doesn’t include tablets or mobiles, but even if we look at BBC iStats the thought occurs that this seems an awful lot of effort to measure not very much.
Toby Syfret of Enders Analysis projected that still 77% of all viewing in 2020 will be live viewing on TV sets. Perhaps online video has now found its natural level. Clearly usage will be heavily skewed to young adults, but it does raise the issue of exactly what is ‘television’.
Verto Analytics clearly envisage a wider video world in which we can advertise in and measure Angry Birds and Grand Theft Auto, whilst a number of speakers showed ethnographic research about the central and addictive role of smartphones in people’s lives.
So the thought occurs: if we can break the measurement challenge of gathering video and audio usage from these devices, do we just limit ourselves to linear or recently broadcast content, or measure the wider world of all content?
Some existential angst lies ahead. According to data shown by Facebook, 40% of us now sometimes start an activity on one device and finish it on another, amplifying the need for true cross-platform reach data.
The barriers between platforms and media are coming down, which was reflected in a stand-out paper from Bas De Vos of SKO in the Netherlands. The existing TV, radio, print and online currencies have taken a highly logical step – to stay separate but fund all new online research jointly to avoid duplication of effort.
So instead of different industry bodies attempting to get on your tablet or smartphone they go in as one and share the data back out afterwards. To foster co-operation the JICs in Holland have literally moved into the same ‘Media House’.
This is the country that gave us Big Brother so perhaps a reality show is in the offing. I have always found the idea of a ‘Super JIC’ measuring all media unlikely, both politically and operationally, but this Dutch model does seem the next logical step. I wonder what leasehold agreements BARB, RAJAR and NRS all have.
The Tony Twyman Award
Since his retirement, the asi Television Conference has featured the Tony Twyman Award for best paper, but the award took on a new meaning this year, with the news of Tony’s recent passing overshadowing the conference. The 2014 Award was won by the BBC’s Margo Swadley, with a paper that focused on how viewers make the choices they do and navigate their way through the world of EPG, VOD and PVR.
Tony Twyman had a very well developed bullshit detector, so it seemed fitting that our keynote was delivered by Bob Hoffman aka ‘the Ad Contrarian‘, who in 30 minutes eviscerated the online advertising industry armed only with his trusty sword of expletives. As @bakelwarden put it on Twitter: “Bob Hoffman’s spot-on take on the ad industry just passed the sh*t-wordcount of an average Breaking Bad episode. Go Ad-Heisenberg!”
For non Breaking Bad fans, Heisenberg is the alter ego of Walter White in the show, which is appropriate. As I pointed out at the event, I am left wondering whether the Heisenberg Principle may apply to audience measurement. The German physicist stated that there is “…a fundamental limit to the precision with which certain pairs of physical properties of a particle known as complementary variables… can be known simultaneously.”
In audience measurement our ‘complementary variables’ are people and devices. Will a hybrid future allow us to accurately observe both? Stay tuned for future developments.
Click on the button below to download a pdf of the conference programme
7th November 2014, Madrid, Spain
Since his retirement, the asi TV conference has featured the Tony Twyman Award for best paper, but the award took on a new meaning this year, with the news of Tony’s recent passing overshadowing the conference. The 2014 Award was won by the BBC’s Margo Swadley, with a paper that focused on how viewers make the choices they do and navigate their way through the world of EPG, VOD and PVR: The Future of TV (and how we measure it)
The Tony Twyman Award is generously sponsored by
Tony Twyman (1932-2014) worked within the media research industry for many years, most recently before he retired operating a consultancy service in media, communications and social research. Tony gained degrees in mathematics and psychology from Cambridge and London Universities and taught experimental psychology at London. During his career he was the Technical Director of BARB and consulted on a number of television industry contracts around the world. He was technical consultant to the independent radio companies for RAJAR. Other consultancies included JICMARS (medical readership). He was formerly a joint managing director of RBL (Research International – London).
Tony was a highly-respected authority in audience measurement worldwide. He chaired the asi European Radio Conference and the research session of the asi European Television Conference for many years and was a much-valued adviser and friend.
Click on the button below to download a pdf of the award-winning paper
6th November 2013, Venice, Italy
Not very long ago people listened to radio on radio sets. Today, the use of traditional radio receivers is in decline as radio’s symbiotic nature has made it possible to listen on PCs, phones, tablets and TVs; however, this proliferation of non-primary purpose devices means that radio is constantly in competition with other media and applications – not just TV and video clips, but all kinds of audio services, some radio, some not radio, and some that are somewhere in between. The conference heard from original research taking a snapshot of what we listen to, who we listen with and what we do while we’re listening against a backdrop of how, where and when we listen, to provide an insight into how radio survives in a landscape where competition for attention and time has never been more fierce.
In many markets there has been concern at the dropping off of certain audiences – especially younger audiences. In 2012, conference received just such an account from Canada. Many have attributed this perhaps to on-demand listening and, for the first time, this theory has been put to the test in Denmark.
Meanwhile in the UK the largest ever study into radio’s ROI has been conducted drawing on data from more than 500 campaigns. This study quantifies the extent to which advertisers are losing revenue by under-investing in the medium.
Radio is undergoing significant change around the world. There are many new types of content available (e.g., digital stations, apps), new ways of delivering content (e.g., DAB+, streaming), and listeners now also have multiple device options for accessing their content (e.g., smartphones, tablets). The way we measure the radio industry must keep up with all of this activity: audience measurement cannot afford to stand still. The conference looked at significant developments in meeting these challenges in Australia, the Netherlands, Italy and France.
From the Czech Republic came an account of the testing for the first time of a new technological development – measurement with audiomatching via smartphones. Results from field tests were shared, together with comparisons with standard TV and radio ratings.
Click on the button below to download a pdf of the conference programme
7th-8th November 2013, Venice, Italy
Summary by Richard Marks, Research Director, asi
At this year’s asi European Television Conference, taking place in a tranquil Venice, nearly 300 broadcasters, planners and researchers gathered to debate the future of TV audience measurement.
The asi seminar has been an annual fixture for over two decades and whilst other events have come and gone, the asi continues to grow and thrive as the highlight of the research calendar for those designing and using TV currencies. So what did I make of it all, both up close on the stage as I introduced and questioned speakers, and from the audience during other sessions?
Well, as I commented at the event itself, the best analogy I can give for the current state of TV audience measurement is Schroedinger’s Cat. This is a thought experiment that sits at the heart of thinking on quantum physics and the theory of parallel words. A cat is placed in a sealed box with a device that may or may not kill it. So how do we know whether the cat is alive or dead given that we cannot empirically observe its current state inside the box?
The only solution is for scientists to accept that the cat is simultaneously alive and dead, that two possible outcomes, two different universes, co-exist simultaneously. I won’t delve into the details too much, Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory gives an explanation that is more my intellectual level.
Suffice it to say that it seems that audience measurement is also simultaneously in rude health, innovating to measure across platforms and at death’s door, King Canute about to be drowned by a tidal wave of big data.
Which outcome ensues will depend very much on the amount of work going on at the moment. Significantly, three of the TV Joint Industry Surveys speaking had tenders under way, all involving the use of data across TV platforms, BARB’s Dovetail fusion initiative in the UK, a similar initiative in The Netherlands and a full tender process in Sweden.
Across the sessions, if one theme emerged it was the need for hybrid approaches, combining industry data derived from research samples with server and machine-generated data. Big Data has a lot to offer but the trading currencies represent people, not machines and devices, and the conference reflected a growing consensus that hybrid initiatives involving fusion are the way forward to achieve both granularity and cross-platform, cross-device measurement. If Schroedinger’s Cat lives it will be as a cross-breed.
However, aspiring to doing something and actually doing it are two different things, and to be frank what wasn’t yet evident was the real, actual detail on how this would actually be done in practice. This could be due to reticence related to Intellectual Property considerations or more likely because the thinking is not yet fully developed. The true state of the audience measurement cat’s health will depend on how these lofty aspirations towards hybrid measurement are actually acted upon.
Compared to past asi conferences, where the relative merits of fixed versus portable meters and of meter panels versus Return Path Data have seen heated debate, an industry consensus is emerging about where television currency research wants to be.
However, getting there is very much a work in progress. Some important steps forward were in evidence. Throwing caution to the wind, BARB did a successful live demo of the approach they will be using for tablet measurement, whilst ESPN’s Blueprint project in the US is successfully combining PPM, Set Top Box and online panel data. The German currency is being fused with online streaming data and Facebook unveiled a fusion of their social media data with Touchpoints to show campaign reach across TV and Facebook combined.
However, two of the best-received papers across the conference derived from qualitative ethnographic studies of TV viewing, hugely ironic for what is primarily a quantitative conference.
The BBC showed how people take decisions about what they choose what to watch and a clear hierarchy can be seen from live channels in the EPG through to VOD as a last resort. It’s a survey well worth tracking down.
Meanwhile, Best Paper was awarded to ThinkBox. Updates on their Screenlife initiative have been seen on many platforms over the last year or so, but the focus is on what happens when people are denied live television. Respondents (presumably with some financial incentive) tried to survive without live TV for a few days and kept video blogs about it.
Denied the live experience, rather than diving gleefully into a sea of on-demand content available when they want it, most wandered around like junkies doing cold turkey, lamenting the conversations they could not have with friends and in one extreme case, sat staring at a blank television describing what they were missing.
As Neil Mortensen put it, on demand is a box of chocolates, but live TV is our daily food.
So why did these papers do so well? Mainly, I suspect, because currency measurement does have something of an ‘under construction’ sign over it at the moment, with most of the emphasis, understandably, on methodologies rather than outcomes.
Meanwhile, qualitative research is much more engaging to present, particularly using video and a talking heads format. However ‘qual’ only gets you so far. It helps you to understand what the TV currency is saying, but it is quantitative methods that give that currency a voice in the first place.
Representatives of the three main global TV Audience Measurement suppliers, Nielsen, Kantar Media and GfK, took part in a panel debating their future, faced by new entrants like comScore and Rentak, and the possibility of disintermediation as clients access Big Data directly.
What struck me from the resulting discussion is how hard the agencies have to work to create some clear blue water between themselves in a world in which research thinking is converging.
GfK managed to create some positive vibes within the room by claiming that they are proud to be ‘researchers’ as opposed to ‘Data Investment Managers’. However, that retro vibe may play better with us researchers in the room at the asi than in client boardrooms and on Wall Street.
Looking at the future of the media research agencies is a project I am currently engaged with, speaking to both clients and agency researchers ahead of a paper I will be delivering at the Media Research Group Conference at BAFTA in November. I hope to summarise it in next month’s column.
As for the asi Conference, a lot of agreement on a general plan for keeping Schroedinger’s Cat alive, but less concrete detail on the actual steps needed to do it. The signs are good, but the cat maintains its duality of existence as we contemplate a likely future of Black Box solutions.
Click on the button below to download a pdf of the conference programme
8th November 2013, Venice, Italy
This year’s Tony Twyman Award for the conference paper that made ‘the best contribution to a greater understanding of the TV medium and its audiences’ was won by Neil Mortensen, Research Director of Thinkbox, for his paper: Screen Life – TV in demand
The Tony Twyman Award is generously sponsored by
Tony Twyman (1932-2014) worked within the media research industry for many years, most recently before he retired operating a consultancy service in media, communications and social research. Tony gained degrees in mathematics and psychology from Cambridge and London Universities and taught experimental psychology at London. During his career he was the Technical Director of BARB and consulted on a number of television industry contracts around the world. He was technical consultant to the independent radio companies for RAJAR. Other consultancies included JICMARS (medical readership). He was formerly a joint managing director of RBL (Research International – London).
Tony was a highly-respected authority in audience measurement worldwide. He chaired the asi European Radio Conference and the research session of the asi European Television Conference for many years and was a much-valued adviser and friend.
Click on the button below to download a pdf of the award-winning paper