Commentary

This Crisis Will Accelerate Change In Cross-Platform TV/Premium Video Measurement

1. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, April 14, 2020 at 12:55 p.m.

   Jane, unless there has been a change that I'm not aware of smart TV sets and set-top-boxes only measure whether the device is on and what channel or show is on the screen---not who is watching ----or even if anyone is present. Since the typical household resident watches only half the time when TV content is accessed, this creates a huge error margin when trying to attribute household usage to personal viewing. Until this issue is dealt with---perhaps by using an observational system like TVision's---the fact that much larger samples are available for granular analysis via smart sets and STBs is fine but we still need to measure viewers not households to draw meaningful conclusions. Just my opinion, of course.

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Tony Jarvis from Olympic Media Consultancy, April 16, 2020 at 11:56 a.m.
Once again Ed is quite correct.  When are "we" going to stop using the term "viewers" when actual viewing, or a known "contact" or expsoure are not measured?  It is beyond disappointing that an article from such an experienced industry media research leader (who I admire greatly!) would not raise the critcal issue in cross media meaurement - a meaningful common currency.  What should have been underlined is difference between phony "impressions" or so called "viewable impressions" per MRC that are neither a measure of viewers nor even audience but a simply a control factor to assure the ad or content has been rendered and delivered to a device to spec and therfore potentially "viewable". 
Cross-media measurement and planning is indeed more critical than ever but it needs to be executed at the most relevant level for the advertisers and their brands.  That comparable  harmonized common currency level can surely only be based on ad or content rendered and actually exposed to a target audience.  As both Erwin Ephron and Ed Papazian have constantly reminded us, without exposure or actual viewing, there can be no effects.  So running attributions and ROI models, etc. on any other media metric will be wonky at best.  More critically, measured at the exposure level there is a high probability that TV/Premium Video will generate relatively much higher exposure or viewing levels and consequently generate greater "impacts" for the brand advertised in that environment. 
Please note impacts in their many guises are a measure generally beyond media's control.  Media's responsibility is to generate audience exposure to help optimize the campaigns potential effects.  Once that is acheived a myriad of factors influence the impact or overall ROI of the campaign. 
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