In TV, audience measurement has always sought to answer two simple questions: what programme or channel is displayed on the TV screen? Who is in front of the TV? In an increasingly complex landscape, responding to these requires innovative solutions revealed during the Technology Hotspot(s) offered by Médiamétrie last July.

Capturing a dispersing audience

When there were just six channels in existence, broadcast via terrestrial transmission by a single operator like TDF, all Médiamétrie needed to do was to connect an audimeter to the TV set to collect information. Each channel had its unique assigned, unchanging number. 
The development of cable, satellite and especially ADSL reception made data collection more complex. A channel's number varied with each operator's service plans. They could decide at any time to change it or switch to a new generation of set-top box – each time requiring technical adaptation for the measurement or the audience measurement panel. 
To no longer be held hostage to these changes, and to free themselves from the technical constraints of broadcast operators, Médiamétrie chose a new channel-identification technology: watermarking. They deployed it in 2008 to measure approximately 130 channels (including regional versions of France 3). 

2008: 130 channels measured through watermarking

Image

Watermarking consists in inserting an audio mark inaudible to the human ear into a TV channel's programmes. This watermark contains identification for the channel broadcasting the marked programme, and regular signals on the broadcast time. Audimeters installed in panellist households recognise and record these signals.

Watermarking can also distinguish live from pre-recorded broadcast, since it locates the potential difference between the broadcast date and time information for the live programme contained in the watermark, and the time the audimeter identifies the programme being watched. This is how Médiamétrie was able to integrate into Médiamat the audiences for time-shifted programmes in 2011 (through personal recording or by controlled viewing of real-time television broadcasts).

Programming is marked by channels' broadcast control rooms. As a result, the station identification displayed on a TV screen depends on the channels themselves, and no longer on operators. This technology meant freedom from all new equipment, and could ensure continuity in TV audience measurement in a changing environment. Further, Médiamétrie adapted the watermarking technology to account for catch-up TV audiences watching on their set. Watermarking is currently used to produce the reference TV audience measurement in France and all its associated services: Médiamat National Quotidien, Médiamat Editeurs and Médiamat'Thématik.

Portable audience measurement: a complementary new field for experimentation

A research field in which Médiamétrie is making large strides, which will allow a better understanding of consumption outside the home: Individual audience measurement (IAM). This involves giving panellists an individual audimeter, a small unit for one's pocket or to hook on a belt, that continuously records all one's radio and TV contacts. 

Image

After a preliminary test performed for radio stations in 2013, a new experiment over several months using 750 panellists starts in fall 2015. Beacons placed in the panellist's house, office and vehicle will locate the audimeter, to link radio listening to the location. Preliminary analysis on the future use of this panel for TV and radio measurements will take place at the start of 2016.
In the long run, will individual audience measurement replace declarative surveys, such as the "126,000" for radio audiences? Some countries, such as Canada and Denmark, have already made the leap. Nevertheless, Benoît Cassaigne, Director of Audience Measurements at Médiamétrie, is clear on the timeline for a market like France: "moving to individual audience measurement represents a break with current convention, accepted by everyone. Above all for radio, this means developing a complementary measurement to the 126,000 radio survey."

Hybrid measurement or the combination of data panels and login logs.

Médiamétrie is also innovating with the hybrid TV measurement project developed with the Canal + Group, an initiative that was rewarded with the Data Creativity Award at the I-Com Global Summit 2015. Hybridization consists of uniting two different sources of information: data from the Médiamat panel and connection logs from CanalSat set-top boxes to create finer, richer and more frequent measurement.

Towards a four-screen TV audience measurement 

In order to respond to the new challenges of measuring TV across 4 screens (TV, computer, mobile, tablet), at the start of 2016 Médiamétrie will begin reconciling its TV data from the Médiamat panel and its internet measurements (tablet, mobile and computer panels and video streaming data).
This change will allow us to measure the audience share for channels and for certain flagship programmes over the four screens.

Technological innovations to capture and process data... Come back soon for the second installation in our trilogy: Converging on an overall audience, or how to process data from mixed sources.

Isabelle Repiton / Isabelle Lellouche