Are TV networks packing apples with oranges? How OzTAM’s digital catch-up TV ratings work
Yesterday two major TV networks breached the rules on how to use the new OzTAM catch-up TV data. Nic Christensen breaks down what the numbers mean and how they should be interpreted.
It’s in part a sign of how eager the TV networks were for accurate online audience figures that both Seven and Ten yesterday decided that “close enough is good enough” and unfairly inflated their total TV audience figures.
For those not across the intricacies of the new metric (which I’m about to jump headlong into) Seven and Ten’s sin was to combine the new VPM ratings, which measure the average number of devices watching a program nationally, with the TV ratings, which measure the average television audience in the five major metropolitan cities.
Put simply, they were comparing apples and oranges. Well, to be more accurate it’s more like apples and orange crates that definitely contain fruit and, it’s thought, an unspecified number of oranges, but more on that later.
I think it is a great move for someone to try and quantify the audiences across devices and screens, it is hard. One question live streaming of the Olympics (on 7) is going to increase viewing by ONLY 2%? Really?
A good piece Nic. Well done.
I do have a better idea than to “be able to turn what is currently national device data into real metropolitan audience data that can then be merged to gain a total audience figure.”
How about we have a National TV panel and use it to drill down into the geography when needed. Name me one other industry which prefers to base their PR on a low-ball figure.
The OzTAM and RegTAM divide is an artefact of the ’90s. Surely it is time to move on and (irrespective of whether the ownership rules change) bite the bullet so as to report programme ratings nationally. Producing a National TV post-analysis report for a national TV advertiser is unnecessarily cumbersome. There are some technical issues which might bump the current ratings around a bit, but I am sure they can be resolved.