CFlight takes ‘big step forward’ as broadcasters test trading audiences
The UK’s Big Three commercial TV broadcasters have begun testing widely-used traded audiences within CFlight, their joint initiative to deliver “total campaign” reporting.
This month, Channel 4, ITV and Sky have begun to provide traded-audiences data that will be included in CFlight, and alongside RSMB, will be testing the campaign results.
The 14 traded audiences are: ABC1 Adults; ABC1 Housepersons; ABC1 Men; ABC1 Women; Adults 16+; Adults 16-34; Adults 25-44; Adults 45+; Housepersons; Housepersons with Children; Men 16+; Men 16-34; Women 16+; Women 16-34.
Barb, the UK’s TV measurement company, will extend the testing programme when it takes control of the initiative in January.
It has also appointed a head of campaign audiences from Pamco to lead the delivery of total campaign reporting, which is providing deduplicated measurement for linear and video-on-demand (VOD) TV audiences.
What’s next for C-Flight
In January 2024, Barb expects to extend the testing programme to include members of the IPA’s TV Research Action Group (TRAG), which includes representatives from all the major agency groups.
This testing will then be extended to all CFlight users in February, with a target date for full launch in March.
CFlight was created by Sky’s Comcast stablemate NBCUniversal but was launched as a joint UK venture with rivals ITV and Channel 4. Now, as part of Barb’s joint-industry reporting of audiences, the long-term goal is to expand the number of services included in CFlight and the Advanced Campaign Hub.
Since its beta launch in March 2022, CFlight has reported de-duplicated reach and frequency for campaigns aired on both linear and BVOD services.
The means that any VOD or streaming service that is a full Barb licensee will be able to participate on the same terms as TV broadcasters. Disney+ and Netflix have become Barb licensees.
Barb appoints head of campaign audiences
Barb has also appointed Luca Vannini to the newly created role of head of campaign audience. He will be responsible for leading the delivery and development of Barb’s total campaign reporting across linear and VOD services through two services: CFlight (for post-campaign validation of de-duplicated reach and frequency) and the Advanced Campaign Hub (for pre-campaign planning).
Vannini will join Barb in February 2024 from PAMCo, where, as research director, he has been responsible for overseeing the development and evolution of the audience measurement system for published media. Prior to this, he held positions at research companies Toluna and Ipsos Mori. He will report to CEO Justin Sampson.
Andrew McIntosh has led the development of CFlight as project management consultant since 2020, and he will continue in this ongoing consultant role in the first half of 2024.
Sampson said: “CFlight is a ground-breaking industry collaboration that’s in the process of becoming part of Barb’s joint-industry audience measurement.
“Reporting campaign delivery against all the major trading audiences is a big step forward, providing advertisers and agencies with even greater accountability for their investment in advertising on linear and VOD services.”
CFlight is meant to rely on trusted data sources, be audited to high quality standards, and provide the total reach and frequency of ad campaigns across all viewing platforms.
It is complementary to Barb’s Advanced Campaign Hub, which provides pre-campaign planning analysis across linear channels and broadcaster VOD (BVOD) services, including budget optimisation. Together, these audience-reporting tools are meant to enable media buyers to conduct end-to-end analysis of total campaign performance across linear channels and BVOD services.