OzTam begins its new VOZ measurement system in an overhaul of viewing data

The television industry will launch its new ratings system on Monday, in a significant overhaul of the way viewing audiences are calculated and distributed to media and advertisers.

OzTAM chief executive officer Karen Halligan. Picture: Sammer Affridi

The television industry will launch its new ratings system on Monday, in what will be a significant overhaul of the way viewing audiences are calculated and distributed to media and advertisers.

TV ratings firm OzTAM will provide a revamped data set to reflect the way Australians view television content, whether it be on linear TV or broadcast viewing on demand (BVOD), and it could inflate numbers given consumers only have to watch as little as 15 seconds of a program for it to register.

OzTAM chief executive officer Karen Halligan told The Australian the changes were a “significant milestone” for the industry after a “highly complex” overhaul that has been years in the making.

“OzTAM and the broadcasters have been investing significantly in accurately measuring the total picture of what happens across broadcast TV and BVOD and get a true representation of the numbers,” she said.

“As audience migrates from platform to platform including viewing from apps and connected homes, looking at TV-only ratings, it doesn’t actually represent the true level of exposure that the TV networks’ content is actually reaching.”

From Monday OzTAM, which is owned by commercial networks Seven, Nine and Ten, will provide two daily VOZ (Virtual Australia) ratings system reports including total TV overnight top 30 programs and total TV consolidated 7-day top 30 programs.

The total TV overnight top 30 programs includes free-to-air programs ranked on national total TV reach (the number of viewers who watch at least one minute of linear TV or on streaming services), total broadcast and BVOD total audience (viewing of at least 15 seconds). Audience is calculated by the number of viewers watching each minute of a program divided by the duration of the program.

Demographic breakdowns will also be provided.

The second report will include the total TV consolidated free-to-air program over a seven-day period and will also include total national TV reach, total TV national audience and BVOD national audience as well as demographics.

The new data will be published at 11.35am each day on the VOZ website and TV networks will then share their own interpretation of the viewing data a short time later.

Foxtel (owned 65 per cent by News Corp, publisher of The Australian) has also joined forces with global data, insights, and consulting company Kantar Media to deliver a new measurement service.

This will allow the Foxtel Group to access data from one million set top boxes and more than 3.1 million streaming customers and provide its own comprehensive viewing data.

As streaming continues to surge in popularity including live and catch-up viewing, Ms Halligan said viewing habits have changed and this needs to be reflected in accurate data collection.

“A lot of people will not watch on the night of release, they may watch a few days later,” she said.

“It’s no secret that there are so many choices for consumers in different platforms from your in-hand device to iPads to connected TV and different demographics are skewing to their preferred device.

“If you are looking at just a point in time – metro TV broadcast – you are not really capturing a huge proportion of the audience that’s actually being exposed.”

Spinach Advertising general manager and media director Ben Willee welcomed the changes to how TV ratings are calculated.

“It’s a fundamental change in how we report on television and BVOD viewing that is finally in line with how we consume the media,” he said. “Given we are likely to see streamers competing for advertising dollars the TV industry needs new metrics to reflect the new reality of viewing.

“Advertisers will need to ensure they don’t confuse total reach and average reach but all in all it’s a change that needed to happen.”

He noted that it will take time to interpret the statistics and allow them to be compared, like for like, with previous years.

Television advocacy body, ThinkTV’s chief executive Kim Portrate, also welcomed the changes that she said had been underway for at least three years.

“The motivation behind it from an advertiser point of view is to ensure that brands and businesses understand the total number of people that saw their ads,” she said.

“Brands are paying for ads to be seen by people and we need to measure those people properly.

“It’s the first step in a number of changes and innovations that are going to happen for the industry.”