Discovery develops audience measurement for its Olympic Winter Games coverage

Discovery To Measure Total Video – The New ‘TV’ – Across All Screens In Europe During The Olympic Winter Games

LONDON — As Home of the Olympics in Europe*, Discovery and its leading sports brand Eurosport are on track to deliver the Olympic Winter Games to more people, across more screens than ever before. To match that ambition and provide a more complete picture of the popularity and importance of the Olympic Games, the company announced today that it has developed a first-of-its kind methodology to measure audience behavior across Europe.

Discovery unveiled three new metrics, which together will capture ‘Total Video’ – the new ‘TV’—across free-to-air, pay TV, online and social platforms for the company’s own platforms and those of all its partners – on tablets, mobile or traditional television screens.

1. Video: The number of videos viewed and the volume of viewing expressed in hours across Discovery’s owned and operated platforms, including free-to-air, pay TV, streaming services, digital, apps and social media, in addition to traditional audience data from its broadcast partners throughout Europe.
2. Users: The sum of total users across Discovery’s owned and operated platforms, including free-to-air, pay TV, streaming services, digital, apps and social media, in addition to traditional audience data from its broadcast partners throughout Europe.
3. Engagement: The number of likes, shares and comments across all of Discovery’s digital and social media properties, covering all platforms.

Jean-Briac Perrette, Discovery Networks International President and CEO, said: “Discovery is proud to partner with the IOC and Publicis in modernizing media consumption measurement to better understand audience behavior in the digital era. Clearly the way people consume content and particularly big events has evolved, which is why we need to bolster traditional measurement methods and expand the metrics of television to capture Total Video – the new TV.”

Perrette concluded: “The Olympic Games is the biggest event in the world and therefore is the best testing ground for studying video consumption. We are committed to delivering the ultimate viewing experience for audiences across Europe, enabling them to enjoy every minute of the action from PyeongChang 2018, whenever and on whatever device they choose to watch it.”

Thomas Bach, International Olympic Committee President, said: “Discovery is bringing exciting levels of ambition, investment and innovation to the Olympic Games and we highly value their partnership and collaboration. Through capturing Total Video viewing across all screens, Discovery is setting a new standard, and working together we will be able to better understand audience trends across Europe and interact with new generations of Olympic fans.”

Discovery has partnered with Publicis Media’s Sport and Entertainment division to design the approach for and calculate de-duplicated and unique reach through a post-Games survey measuring people’s consumption of the Olympic Winter Games across multiple screens and platforms, without double counting of people.

Chris Jones, Global Lead, Research & Evaluation at Publicis Media Sports & Entertainment, said: “Publicis Media is excited to have developed this unique audience reach methodology with Discovery and is delighted that the IOC supports its deployment for the Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang. It neatly meshes data from different sources. Importantly, official audited data from television and online measurement systems are at the heart of the calculation but clever use of survey research allows us to understand the cross-over in people who connect with the Games via both television and digital/social platforms meaning we can remove any double counting and determine the true pan-European audience reach of an event for the first time.”

* Eurosport is Home of the Olympics in Europe. Excludes France 2018-2020. Excludes Russia. Eurosport will be an Official Broadcaster in the UK 2018 and 2020.