AM 3.0 Preview: The Closing of the "Couch-Potato" Era?

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As TV and video viewers demand more flexibility about when and where they watch their favorite programs, the advertising industry must adjust its audience measurement techniques. comScore Chief of Research Josh Chasin offers insight on the most important trends to consider in his preview of his upcoming comments at our convention.

It’s no secret that it’s getting tougher to predict the habits of TV audiences. The growth of both on-demand technologies and online video mean that the advertising industry can no longer rely on tracking viewers solely as they plop on the couch to watch their favorite shows at regularly scheduled times. To measure audiences accurately, researchers have to be increasingly innovative.

To help our members find new solutions, we invited Josh Chasin, chief research officer of comScore, to address online video trends at our Audience Measurement 3.0 conference. He will speak during “The TV/Video Audience Measurement Challenge,” the mid-morning keynote, which will take place on Day One, June 24, from 11 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. He recently gave us a preview of some of the ideas he plans to address.

ARF: Josh, what key trends are you seeing in online video these days?

Josh: The first thing that’s going on is sociological. Technology is causing changes in the way people behave. People are consuming TV content on their own terms, where they want it and when they want it. They’re migrating from feeling like they have to watch something on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. to viewing programs on-demand. That’s a fundamental difference.

I’m hearing about young people who don’t use TVs anymore. They can watch whatever they need to watch online, whenever they want to watch it. If they can’t watch the show that way, they’ll wait until the season ends and rent the DVDs. I don’t know how big a trend this is. The anecdotal evidence is a little bit troubling.

ARF: Given these changes, what factors does the industry need to consider when measuring TV and video audiences?

Josh: Video doesn’t just live on TVs anymore. There are screens at the airport, screens in taxis. It feels as if video is following people. As a result, the idea of measuring different kinds of content through the silo of the platform is starting to fall apart. You can’t just measure TV to capture all video. I tend to think this argues for person-based measurement and measuring all of the devices people might use to watch video, so you can get a 360% view.

ARF: How big is the reach of online video?

Josh: We typically we think about reach accumulating in magazines. In a monthly title, reach accumulates over a month. There’s a big hit when it gets to the newsstand. To receive the benefit of advertising there, it takes a month.

We tend to think of TV, on the other hand, as generating its reach instantaneously. But because of the different ways to access video content, TV is accruing reach the way magazines do. Take The Sopranos, for instance. A lot of people missed it, so they TiVo-ed it and watched it on-demand or on HBO channels. It kept getting views all month.

This phenomenon is going to be a challenge for TV and video companies. Their business model is predicated on reach accruing instantly.

ARF: Is the advertising industry paying enough attention to what’s going on?

Josh: Over the last 8-9 months, a lot of companies that had not previously been all that focused on the internet have been paying a whole lot of attention to it. It’s because of video. Video seems to be the thing that’s bringing mainstream ad agencies and traditional media companies to the Internet. Now they see it as a flavor of TV. If it’s a flavor of TV, it’s very important to them. As a result, they are making more efforts to understand how online video fits in.