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DirecTV, TNS tie up for audience measurement

Indiantelevision.com Team

(2 February 2008 3:00 pm)

MUMBAI: US pay TV paltform DirecTV and TNS Media Research are developing an opt-in audience measurement panel of 100,000 DirecTV subscribers. They claim that this is the largest US national audience measurement panel ever.

TNS DirecTView will be introduced later this year. DirecTV has more than 16.6 million customers.

TNS Media Research will measure the total viewing, including the live and time-shifted (DVR) viewing of programmes and commercials at a second-by-second interval, of 100,000 representative households within DirecTV’s national footprint.

DirecTV Entertainment executive VP Eric Shanks says, “By working with TNS Media Research, our goal is to develop a panel capability that will provide important insights across our advertising platform.

“These insights will in turn provide our advertisers and programming partners an unparalleled level of measurement accuracy and accountability when partnering with DirecTV.”

TNS Media Research established its relationship with DirecTV last year when it launched audience measurement services focused on the company’s interactive subscriber households. DirecTV has been utilising TNS Media Research’s advanced audience measurement capabilities to better understand its customers’ anonymous use of the interactive applications it offers.

TNS Media Research COO George Shababb says, “Over the past eighteen months DirecTV and TNS have built a solid partnership and today we are providing in-depth analyses and reporting services in support of their advanced programming and advertising platform.

“Looking ahead we are excited to be building on our excellent relationship with DirecTV and creating a platform to take audience measurement to the next level in the U.S.”

In addition, TNS Media Research will be marketing the national panel. Through InfoSys, the most widely-used media analysis and planning system in the world, TNS Media Research will offer subscription services that will allow clients to directly access extremely detailed data to provide in-depth and insightful analyses of national viewing patterns.

Media agency Starcom Worldwide senior VP video innovations Tracey Scheppach says, "This announcement is exciting as it is further proof that the digital evolution is fueling a revolution in television audience measurement. With the TNS DirecTView service, Starcom is thrilled to be able to take another important step in understanding and using second-by-second behavioral data to acquire more knowledge and deliver greater accountability on behalf of our advertisers.”