Commercial network sales bosses give mixed views on measuring streaming rivals with TV
Wiltshire
The sales bosses of Networks Seven, Nine and Ten are at odds over whether online video streaming services should be included in an updated TV ratings measurement.
Earlier this week a number of media buyers made calls for an improved OzTam ratings system to take into account catchup video and look at the eyeballs being captured by streaming services such as Stan, Netflix and Presto.
While Nine Entertainment Co, which owns half of SVOD service Stan, group sales director Peter Wiltshire dismissed the idea of allowing streaming into the official OzTam Ratings telling Mumbrella: “I’m not interested in SVOD at all, in terms measurement. I just don’t think it is relevant.
Measurement is relevant. Peter Wiltshire says, “Technology – not competition – is the main varying factor for what is going on”. However he wants to describe it, eyeballs are being taken away from his primary product. Just because there is no advertising model attached is a daft attitude. Meanwhile, Rome is burning…
I agree with Lou on this one. It makes sense to include streaming. If it is irrelevant as Peter says it is then this data will support the view and should help the networks sales pitch anyway. Like them or not, ratings are the trading currency for now and is a metric by which most people who want to spend money on this form of advertising use to influence where they spend.
Why would Channel Ten want to include Streaming numbers?
With their ratings as poor as what they are and with no stake in the streaming game, this could only look bad for them and drive Nine and Seven even further ahead in audience and ultimately commercial share.
I think the term is straight bat, not dead bat 🙂 “However, Peiffer played a dead bat on whether it would look to measure the new streming services in its metric”
Surprised anyone still watches the drivel on free to air anyway. My House Reno Kitchen Block Rules. Still Dating Naked was at least mildly interesting
“Why would Channel Ten want to include Streaming numbers?
With their ratings as poor as what they are and with no stake in the streaming game, this could only look bad for them and drive Nine and Seven even further ahead in audience and ultimately commercial share.”
Streaming doesn’t only include subs based ones like Netflix. Ten would probably benefit from including figures from Tenplay as, relative to their FTA share, it seems to do pretty well.
Thanks for flagging Paul,
Yes I meant straight bat. Copy corrected.
Cheers
Nic – Mumbrella
Once we get real, actual stats on these streaming services. Do we then think that, aligned next to FTA figures, we will see the vastly inflated stats that have been conning the masses for decades get unearthed? Or am I way off track?
“It may become a niggle in the side but at this point in time it is invisible to us.”
hahahhahahaaa
the biggest threat ever faced is an invisible niggle?
FTA is dead with that attitude.
That’s just the kind of old school attitude that will relegate free-to-air networks to the history books – the industry is crying out for a modern, aggregated and comprehensive measurement system.
This kind of thinking is reminiscent of Fairfax board of 15-10 years ago and Myer board of same time period. Look where that thinking got them. Just as Fairfax “rivers of gold” dried up, and NewsCorpse is kept alive now only with tax dodges, so too FTA will discover its golden age ended with SVOD.
Would it kill these guys to at least pretend they want to get ahead of the curve for once? Shocking attitude.
First, many will be shocked when (as Lez says) the streaming data is reported as audience data. Things ain’t what they seem to be in the streaming camp.
Second, I take Peter Wiltshire’s point about SVOD not carrying advertising. At the end of the day the reason we have TV ratings is to sell ads, so he has a point.
Third, here’s an idea. What about we have Content Ratings and Ad Ratings. Problem solved and a happy market. Don’t just change the measurement, change the measurement model.
surely it’s a good thing from a programming point of view to find out when viewers are switching over to streaming companies and then plan appropriate new programs around this time. Given that there is very very limited inventory of new shows on netflix et all, it s a nice way of being disruptive and not giving viewers a chance to put netflix on
Wiltshire is deluded.
Anything that utilises eyeballs is a threat to FTA.
If advertisers can understand where the viewers are, that should only strengthen FTA’s case in a fragmenting viewer-driven world.