• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, August 11, 2010

The fledgling Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) Tuesday said it has commissioned an ambitious study to understand how American media consumption patterns relate to existing audience measurement services. The study, which will be conducted by the New York-based Media Behavior Institute, will utilize a highly regarded method known as "Touchpoints" that was developed in the U.K. to link media consumption behavior to media audience measurement.

The study, which will run from September through February 2011, will ask a sample of 1,000 U.S. adults to record their media behavior in 30-minute intervals over 10-days. Those results will then be "fused" with data from existing U.S. media measurement services.

The result, said CIMM Managing Director Jane Clarke, will be a report enabling media planners, buyers and sellers to understand how respondents use all types of media, and how that in turn generates unduplicated reach across all media.

CIMM, which is backed by big advertisers, agencies and media companies, said the results would be provided to its members exclusively for six months.