“We are not even remotely near a gold standard for online measurement,” was the realistic assessment of Keld Nielsen, global commercial director of Kantar media audiences. Could we get one? “We need one,” he said.
(Should Kantar really have a boss whose surname is Nielsen? Ed)
Standards of measurement as much as technologies seemed to be the challenge for the global research bosses on stage at the asi European Television Symposium in Madrid, as they considered the key requirements for audience measurement across all platforms.
Watermarking could be part of the future but there is not even a common dictionary of terms available, commented Joan Fitzgerald, senior VP TV and cross-media solutions at comScore. “One code (tag) for all will never happen…we all know that,” added Nielsen.
The panel were responding to a brief to provide a ten minute resumé of their approaches to measuring both radio and TV.
An interesting – and slightly surprising – stat came from France, courtesy of Julien Rosanvallon, head of TV audience measurement at Mediametrie – TV is watched on average on 1.7 devices in France; radio listened to on an average 9.6 devices.
“Integration” was the most used word – and the biggest technical challenge. However, Kantar made it clear TAMs were not going to be ditched. Rather, TAM research will be integrated with RPD and online.
IPSOS MediaCT’s global development director, Jim Ford, felt his business was “disrupting the economics” with a tablet being trialled to replace the people-meter in TV homes at “a fraction of the price.”
Speaking later, Lena Sandell, MD of Finnpanel, remarked on a possible new era of greater co-operation between the research companies.
For all that, Paul Kennedy, research director at RAJAR, did point out that of the 20 countries in the room none used identical measurement systems currently.
Could greater co-operation go far enough to address or at least hasten answers to the challenges ahead? Given legacy systems and competitive pitches it seemed unlikely to your correspondent.
Will agencies’ and advertisers’ demands speed the process? Given there were only two media agencies in the room of over 200 delegates – and no advertisers – that seems unlikely too.
The conference and debates continue.
