The future of audience measurement is hybrid data, says Julien Rosanvallon

Four screen measurement is about plugging into the media ecosystem and getting all the players on board, Julien Rosanvallon tells Vanita Kohli-Khandekar

How did Médiamétrie reach a stage where it can offer a common metric across TV and online?

More than thirty years ago, TV and radio were privatised in France. At that time, two key decisions were taken. One, media measurement should be private and owned by broadcasters, advertisers, media agencies and radio stations. Two, it was home to both radio and TV measurement. In the late nineties, online was added. We had a joint venture with Nielsen for net ratings. We merged the TV and online measurement two years ago. Médiamétrie measures internet (computer, mobile and tablet) and TV (live, time-shifted and replay) as well as radio through a panel. Over the years, we also offer analysis on global TV data. If an Indian producer wants to launch a format in, say, Brazil or any other country, we help him understand how it has performed in other parts of the world. We do this through partners in about a 100 countries. The Broadcast Audience Research Council is a partner in India.

What does it take to have a robust four screen audience measurement system?

We started to make changes ten years ago. In 2011, we included time-shift (replaying through personal recorders), then video-on-demand viewing. By 2016, we were measuring four screens. It doesn't profoundly change sampling. You need a new technological system for capturing online. Therefore, there is video census measurement. Our participant channels embed SDK (a sort of counter or cookie) in their apps. This captures the census data - that is, how many people are watching. But that is not measuring viewership. TV viewership is about the people reached weighted by the time spent. We have a single source panel developed some years ago along with Google. So we track four devices based on census plus panel data, 

a hybrid.

What are the challenges of four screen measurement?

Four screen measurement is not just a technological challenge but also one of knowing what and how you want to measure. Advertising is sold differently on TV, desktop or the phone. Online (ad inventory) is sold without time spent. Some years back Médiamétrie launched a big thinking group to figure out how online metrics could be offered in GRP (gross rating point). That is the first key element of success in any measurement.

Secondly, when you enter the online world, new players should be able to interact with the bodies that count those CPMs (cost per mille or thousand). We need to re-learn the media planning ecosystem. How to connect ad server data to our data so that we can measure reach plus demographic plus time spent.
 

Thirdly, independent neutral measurement is key to the development of a market. The online ad market is developed in France but is solely reliant on the proprietorial initiative. There is a big debate on big (online) players who get 80 per cent of the advertising but not 80 per cent of the audience. Much of this is built on a closed ecosystem. Ad server economics relies only on demographic targeting; we push for behaviour-based targeting. Media planning is all about software, so we would like to do a media planning calculation engine in the sky. If there are two news websites for instance, the ad server can use our calculation engine to figure out the duplication between the two. The future of audience measurement is hybrid data.

Are all the online players on board?

Today the SDK data is only from TV channels. Large international platforms do not accept SDK on their site. It is difficult to work with these platforms, even more so with Netflix.

Why would the big online platforms bother with third party metrics if they already get 80 per cent of the revenues?

Advertisers have taken the position to ask for global measurement. For the moment, all that is available is measuring efficiency - clicks, cost per acquisition. But in video you need to measure efficiency and for building image, awareness is the key. For that you need reach and demographics both. And these metrics cannot be given by the company that sells advertising. It is like asking a company selling you something if what it is selling is good enough or not. It won't say no. There is a strong push from the World Federation of Advertisers.

But if a platform is pay, like Netflix, why would third party metrics matter?

In the US, Nielsen is measuring Netflix on TV screens. We are measuring Netflix on other screens. We want to analyse their market share in this environment. Today, Netflix is paying a good price for content. Tomorrow, if it doesn’t, producers would want to know. For instance, Friends (an old TV show) has a better viewership on Netflix in a full year than Stranger Things (a popular Netflix original). For producers, this information has value.