Six months ago I was able to get my hands on one week of mid-summer 2008 set-top-box data from a U.S. market that is situated far, far, far west. My query was simple: I'm curious to ascertain whether
viewers that watch a particular TV daypart during a given day, such as daytime television, watch any other TV dayparts, (early fringe, prime, late night) during the same 24-hour period. I was
fortunate enough to be partnering with a responsive pay TV distributor, who had licensed a sophisticated technology that enabled such scrutiny. Recently, I was able to garner another week of data --
this time from mid-fall 2008.
Vivisection
The following is the daypart viewing data I gleaned from my vivisection:
Translation
Let's take the stats from Monday as an example. This data indicates that there were 76,356 set top boxes turned on to daytime programming. Of these 76,356 daytime
on-turned set top boxes:
57,003 watched Early Fringe TV programming 63,601 viewed Prime TV programming 20,658 indulged in Late Night TV programming
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At first, I was
skeptical of these numbers. How could there be more daytime viewers (76,356) than prime viewers (63,601). So I quickly prestidigitated another chart to challenge its predecessor:
Key: DV
equals Daytime Viewers and TV equals Total Viewers
For comparison purposes, let's take the stats from Monday as an example. This data (second column) indicates that there were 76,356 set
top boxes turned on to daytime programming. Of these 76,356 daytime on-turned set top boxes:
57,003 viewers of daytime programming also viewed Early Fringe TV programming but in the
market a total of 93,290 watched this daypart 63,601 viewers of daytime programming also watched Prime TV programming but in the market a total of 117,570 watched this daypart 20,658
viewers of daytime programming also indulged in Late Night TV programming but in the market a total of 39,858 watched this daypart. Note: in response to my mid-summer analysis a friend from
Australia, John Grono (GAP Research), pointed out, and I concurred: "In your example (and using broad thumb-nails sketches of tuning paradigms), the tuning during daytime could have been done by
"stay-at-home mum", during the fringes could have been done by "just-home-from-school kids", while during the evening could have been "just-home-from-work-and-just-had-dinner working parents." That
is, there could be (but not likely) zero or little duplication in the data as each of these dayparts could have been tuning by different individuals in the homes. Of course, the likelihood that
someone who tuned during daytime or early fringe but didn't tune during the evening is low. However, the inverse is not true. There is a high likelihood that there are chunks of the evening tuning
that was tuning for the first time that day and was unduplicated with earlier dayparts."
Upon analysis of the set-top-box data, a few ideas sprang to mind on the value of publicly disclosing,
sharing and publishing this information in some form by platform/distributor (cable, satellite, telco) and ad auctioneer (Admira, Google TV, Invidi), technologist (Invidi, Macrovision, Navic, OpenTV,
Visible World), researcher (Nielsen, Rentrak, TiVo, TNS), dataminer (Allant, Axciom, Experian) and even predictive modeler (Ads-Vantage, Quantcast, Simulmedia, TRA):
Platform/distributor
and ad auctioneer commercial inventory sale organizations could prove the efficacy of purchasing multiple dayparts as well as effectiveness in terms of reach, frequency and efficiencies. Thereby
increasing the sale of inventory that is presently less in-demand Ad agencies could glean the benefits of purchasing multiple dayparts: augment reach and frequency, diminish overall package
costs based upon historical CPM baselines, and expand breathe of campaign with additive cable networks, traditional pay TV platforms (cable, satellite, telco), or other televisual platforms offering
video advertising opportunities such as broadband, wireless and/or out of home Astute analysis of set-top-box cable, satellite and telco platform set-top-box audience flow would help platform
marketing departments plan and implement more effective up-sell bundling and feature services messaging i.e., premium, digital, VOD (pay), broadband (varying speeds), telephony (land and mobile) and
commerce Comprehension of set-top-box audience viewing ebb and flow would help platforms/distributors and marketers glean greater understanding of usage patterns for interactive TV
applications to enhance value proposition to the consumer.
Scheduled Meet
In response to the responses I received from the article, I proposed the formation of a
set-top-box think tank. Get the professionals involved. Engage inquisitors to have a more profound public dialogue about dwell time, unattended tuning, capping sessions, data hygiene and all that
other arcane terminology.
I am pleased to announce that a meet is set for April 30 to dialogue about issues and data affecting the evolution of set top box reportage. Medians in attendance
include:
