Set top box: The Future of Measurement

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Set top boxThe Future of Measurement

• Presentation to Media Research Club of Chicago
• November 10, 2009

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What Ill cover today

• Introduction to STB data
• Challenges of the data
• Examples of use
• The future

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Brief introduction
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What is set top box data?

• Data collected by the box provided by
  cable/satellite operator that brings channels to
  your TV set
• Provides tuning record of the TV set
• Records every click of the remote control
• Data passed back to operator, who can then turn
  it over to analytics company or others
• Clickstream for television

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Providers of STB data

• TNS-Charter LA
• TNS-DirectView
• Google-DISH
• TRA-CharterTiVoothers
• Rentrak-ATT
• Nielsen-Charter LA
• Comcast/Cablevision-addressable trials

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Challenges of STB Data
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Its not Nielsen!

• Households not people
• Tuning not viewing
• Passive data collection only (mostly without
  panels)
• Not nationally representative
• Multiple sources

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Households not people

• Nielsens National People Meter panel provides
  both household and demographic (age/sex)
  information at the persons level
• STB data is mostly at the household (or STB)
  level
• TiVo does have its own panel with demographics
  included
• Size of STB data sources magnitudes larger than
  currency panel. For example,
• TNS DirectView 100,000 HHs
• TiVo 350,000 HHs
• Rentrak/ATT 1.3 million HHs
• Bigger not always better, but goal is to get to
  census reporting of STB data

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Tuning not viewing

• STB data reports what channels the box is tuned
  to on a 1-second basis
• Does not show viewing by Jane vs. John Doe
• Options
• Ignore completely
• Who views may be irrelevant if the TV exposure in
  the household leads to purchase (TRA)
• Combine with persons measure
• Google has been working with Nielsen to look at
  incorporating VPVH information into the tuning
  data
• Build panels within STB universe
• TNS investigating this within DirectView

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Passive data collection

• STB data are passively collected no need for
  anyone to do anything
• No respondent burden, which reduces the errors
  that can result
• Single data source, so no redundancy built-in

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Not nationally representative

• STB data currently being collected by a number of
  different companies
• All are satellite or cable providers
  demographic and viewing differences between those
  homes and non-subscribers
• Not a true picture of national TV viewing
  behavior
• YET

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Multiple sources

• With so many different sources, who is right?
• Its the Wild West out there!

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Examples of STB Data Analysis and Use
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SMGs experience as a pioneer

• Charter subscriber to
• Charter LA 2006
• TiVo StopIIWatch 2006
• TiVo PowerIIWatch 2008
• DirectView 2008
• Comcast addressable trials 2006 (exclusive)
• TRA 2008

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HD Upfront/Upfront Promise

• In 2007, Starcom agreed to negotiate national TV
  buys with high definition networks, using STB
  data as the currency
• Five networks participated
• In 2008, Starcom expanded the program to include
  any unmeasured networks that wished to negotiate
  on the basis of STB data
• Six networks participated

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PowerIIWatch Custom Questions

• In 2008, Starcom was the first agency to sign up
  with TiVos audience panel to collect
  client-specific and target-specific viewing data
• Matches households viewing activity with
  characteristics identified in online survey
• Examples
• Political affiliation
• Rewards club membership
• Attitudinal items
• Brand users

Brand A
Brand B
Brand C
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TRA

• In 2008, Mediavest became charter subscriber to
  TRA
• True ROI Accountability for media
• Set top box data from about 2 million cable/TiVo
  homes subset of 400,000 frequent grocery
  shopper homes
• TV viewership by product/brand users
• TRA promises to change how we
• Analyze audiences
• Target media
• Calculate ROI

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TRA analysis of viewing by product users
Single Source v. Age/Sex ScheduleBroadcast
Network Only
Index 116
Index 137
Single Source Schedule, Soft Drink Purchasers
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Addressable Trials

• In 2006-07, SMG was exclusive agency partner in
  first Comcast addressable advertising trial
• Other partners
• TNS (analytics)
• Experian (database matching)
• Open TV (technology)
• Sent TV ad messages to individual households,
  based on characteristics of those households
• Demonstrated superior efficiency and
  effectiveness of the ads for 7 participating SMG
  advertisers, based on STB data analysis

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Continued in 2009

• Comcast-Baltimore
• Cablevision-Brooklyn
• A total of 11 SMG advertisers have now
  participated in addressable advertising trials
• Able to look at true target ratings that go
  beyond currency demographics
• Brand usage/intent
• Multi-level demographics
• Client database match

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The Long Tail
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Premise of the Long Tail

• Chris Martins book, The Long Tail, analyzes
  the value of marketing to the niches rather than
  simply where the masses are
• Applies to television viewership in world of 500
  channels
• Is anyone watching The Jewelry Channel?

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Our analysis

• Took one month of Primetime tuning data from
  Charter LA
• Looked at
• Top 20 networks by rating
• Breakdown of the tail by rating
• Time spent in each viewing bucket

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Head of Tail
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Bottom of Tail
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A couple of findings

• Two of the networks in the top 20 for this market
  were officially unmeasured networks
• While greatest share of viewing time is with the
  larger networks, 15 is with networks ranked 100
  or below in rating

Now expanding analysis to other STB data sources
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Head to Tail varies by source
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What we believe

• The future of television lies in set top box data
• Delivering ads to individual or selected groups
  of households
• Enhancing understanding of viewing behavior at
  very granular level
• Providing ROI on power of TV advertising to
  generate sales
• In the end, this will scale
• Canoe Ventures will help centralize the data
• CIMM will help create measurement standards
• The future of TV measurement lies in the set top
  box