BBC develops new cross-platform audience measurement system

The BBC is currently in the process of testing a new audience measurement tool, which takes into account timeshifted and online viewing.

The corporation’s Cross Media Insight system has been dubbed as “pretty special” by a BBC source as it includes cross-platform data, including iPlayer figures, red-button, mobile access, recorded programmes and viewings via third-party sites such as YouTube.

Cross Media Insight, which is currently in beta phase, has been designed to aggregate all the figures over a fixed period after a programme’s first broadcast.

It differs from current audience measurement systems as it records viewing habits from a users point of view, rather than from the platform, according to the BBC.

Speaking to Broadcast, the BBC’s director of audiences Helen Normoyle, said: “It gives us a more nuanced and segmented view of the market place. Other [measurement services] are hugely important but they look at everything through the eyes of the platform.”

The BBC has responded with this ‘holy grail’, which they claim can “revamp the ratings”, by tracking when the viewer responds to a call to action via red-button services or if they watch online.

However, it is keen to stress that the new system should be seen as a complementary service to BARB and other audience measurement systems, though the corporation believes it is the “first time anyone has developed a system to look at what audiences are doing across different platforms”.

Cross Media Insight is expected to go through robust testing before being rolled out but Normoyle wants to have “meaty discussions” with other broadcasters to see what “shared learning” can come from the findings.

Speaking at Broadcast’s Digital Britain conference, BBC3 controller Danny Cohen, said: “Particularly in digital, the value of the overnights has got to be eroded by [this sort of data]. To be able to make proper judgements about programmes, we need to get much more interested in the consolidated viewing figures across different platforms two weeks after transmission.”

Cross Media Insight is based on the weekly media consumption diaries of a panel of 650 viewers.