A month ago, I was able to gets my hands on one week of mid-summer 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, which had licensed a sophisticated technology that enabled such scrutiny.
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 59,996 set top boxes turned on to daytime programming. Of these 59,996 daytime viewers:
44,081 watched Early Fringe TV programming 50,819 viewed Prime TV programming
17,757 indulged in Late Night TV programming
advertisement
advertisement
At first, I was skeptical of these numbers. How could there be more daytime viewers (59,996) than prime viewers (50,819)? So I quickly
prestidigitated another chart to challenge its predecessor:
For comparison purposes, let's take the stats from Monday as an example. This data (second column) indicates that there were 59,996 set
top boxes turned on to daytime programming. Of these 59,996 daytime viewers:
44,081 viewers of daytime programming also viewed Early Fringe TV programming, but in the market a
total of 70,193 watched this daypart, 50,819 viewers of daytime programming also watched Prime TV programming, but in the market a total of 97,255 watched this daypart. 17,757 viewers of daytime programming also indulged in Late Night TV programming, but in the market a total of 27,053 watched this daypart. Based upon this analysis, a few ideas
spring 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, Navic, OpenTV, Visible World), researcher (Nielsen, Rentrak, TNS) and even dataminer (Allant, Axciom, Experian):
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 breadth 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 upsell 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. 
