Audience Measurement
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Measuring television viewing
The television set is an interregnal part of every home and is responsible for a very large share of the average person’s everyday media usage. The set is available to all members of the household and can be viewed at any time of the day or night. To properly service the needs of viewers, broadcasters and marketers, we need to understand the viewer’s preferences and habits. We need to measure the actual viewing to the set.
And of course, in many homes there is more than one TV set and there are an ever increasing number of homes with the technology to view programmes at a time of their choosing. This is what we term Time Shifted Viewing (TSV).
In essence the process is simple but to ensure that we achieve reliable estimates of viewing requires a very sophisticated set of tools, both physical and intellectual.
The Establishment Survey
The process starts by measuring the population, in terms of household size and composition, demographics and TV characteristics. The latter includes number of sets in the home, number of channels received, reception method and the presence of other equipment such as DVD’s, PVR’s etc.
This information is collected three times per annum via a large scale household survey. This is the Establishment Survey and will as part of the new contract, the fieldwork will be conducted by Behaviour& Attitudes.
Data from the Central Stastics Office Census and Quarterly National Household Surveys are used to weight the results of the Establishment Surveys, to ensure that the panel is representative of the television household population. The panel controls and weights are updated three times per annum, thus ensuring that the service keeps pace with consumer and population developments.
The Panel
Households which meet the demographic requirements are invited to join the Nielsen viewing panel. In September 2009, there were 670 such homes on the panel. Under the terms of the new contract, this will rise to 800 homes in September 2010, 920 in 2011 and 1050 in 2012.
This will be one of the largest per capita panels in Europe and one of the most representative.
The meter
Viewing to all sets in the panel homes, and Time Shifted Viewing via Personal Video Recorders (PVR’s), will be measured by the new UNITAM meter. This is state of the art technology, capable of working with all modern TV sets and associated equipment. This meter is new to Ireland but has been tried and tested in many markets in recent years. It does represent a very substantial investment in new equipment but will “future-proof” the measurement service for many years.
The Reference site
Minute by minute ratings data collected by the UNITAM meter is downloaded every night from each panel home, for each member of the household (4 years and over) and then goes through a rigorous quality control system. Central to this is the Reference site which cross checks reported viewing on the meter with actual transmissions by over 200 channels.
As part of the new contract, the Reference site has been totally upgraded, again at a significant capital cost.
Software
There are literally millions of numbers collected every night by the system and to make these accessible to all users requires powerful software. Included in the new contract are significant upgrades to the Arianna software, as used by many advertising agencies and broadcasters.
Time Shifted Viewing (TSV)
Modern technology allows the consumer to watch what they want, when they want, using PVR’s. They are now available in 21% of Irish TV homes and penetration is growing rapidly.
The new contract requires that such viewing be capable of measurement. The UNITAM meter and associated software allows us to measure this viewing for the first time in Ireland and report it to broadcasters and advertising agencies. The system will be capable of reporting Live viewing (as now), deferred viewing but on the same day (VOSDAL: Viewing On Same Day As Live), viewing deferred to anytime later in a seven day period after broadcast and then all of that viewing combined: Consolidated Viewing.
It should be stressed that programmes and commercials viewed in fast forward or any other form of non-standard viewing will not be counted as viewing.
Ireland will be amongst the earliest countries to have the capacity of measuring such trends in viewing behaviour.
2010 UNIVERSES
May 2010 – August 2010
Source: Nielsen TV Audience Measurement
