CIMM Study Looks For Smarter Ways To Use Smart TV Viewing Data

Family watching a smart TV
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The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement said it has launched a study looking at opportunities to enhance the value of smart-TV data as part of television measurement systems.

As cord-cutting reduces the number of homes with set-top boxes, smart TVs have become an increasingly big source of data and information about TV viewing.

CIMM

“Available from tens of millions of households, Smart TV data captures viewing behavior on a second-by-second basis, and can support both content and advertising measurement use cases,” said Jon Watts, CIMM’s managing director.

“However, the ecosystem is fragmented with limited standardization, content identification reference libraries are rarely comprehensive and measurement vendors have to determine how to deal with unidentified or unmatched fingerprints,” Watts said. “Many industry participants believe that there are opportunities to address these issues and we’re excited to work with our members to assess the various options, bringing together networks and programmers, CTV OEMs, agencies, measurement providers and other industry participants in a truly collaborative and inclusive undertaking.”

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Measurement veteran Caroline Horner and will be supported by three expert advisers — Jonathan Steuer, Bill Harvey and Tom Morgan — and a project steering group from CIMM’s membership, including Howard Shimmel, Janus Strategy & Insights; Brian West, NBCUniversal Media; Helen Katz, Publicis Media; and Albert Lau, Omnicom Media Group.

“With the increase in video app usage and addressable advertising inventory, data from Smart TVs is becoming an important indicator of content consumption and ad effectiveness,” Horner said. “If we can work to keep these dataflows as pure, complete and accessible as possible, the ecosystem can better quantify video consumption across linear and digital applications. It is the perfect time to consider practical steps that the industry can take to make the data more comprehensive, accurate, representative, interoperable and cost-effective.” ■

Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.