Sky, Adobe, TVbeat and Alphonso form TV data consortium

Wednesday, February 7th, 2018
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Leading TV Industry Participants Form Thought Leadership Consortium To Explore Future Opportunities Enabled By Developments In Cross-Border And Cross-Platform Data

  • Consortium backed by Sky, Adobe Systems Inc, TVbeat Inc and Alphonso Inc and supported by leading European industry trade bodies egta and the EACA

LONDON, United Kingdom — Four leading industry participants – Sky, Adobe Systems, TVbeat and Alphonso – have formed a new thought leadership consortium that will work with the European TV industry to explore future opportunities enabled by new developments in measurement, metrics and data, in areas such as advanced targeting, audience profiling, viewability and attribution, and advanced analytics.

Building collaboratively on the work of Europe’s JICs and television audience measurement providers, the Consortium will facilitate an extensive programme of research, dialogue and engagement – exploring the new opportunities and priorities opening up for the industry and working to discuss potential priorities and principles. The Consortium is being supported and advised by egta, the European trade association for television and radio sales houses, and EACA, the European Association of Communications Agencies.

The rapid growth and development of multiplatform TV viewing and growing competition from new digital competitors are stimulating new developments and growing investment in measurement and data across the TV industry. Across Europe, the TV industry is already investing heavily in the roll out of next-generation hybrid TV audience measurement solutions, to better measure multi-platform viewing. However, alongside these investments, opportunities are proliferating – to personalise interactions with viewers, to leverage data from TV platforms and OTT services, to introduce new quality metrics such as viewability, dwell time and context, to demonstrate effectiveness in new ways, and to unlock the full potential of advanced advertising.

However, addressing these opportunities presents challenges for the TV industry. Many solutions will require greater collaboration, across industry value chains, and new partnerships to unlock their full potential.

Launching in February 2018, the Consortium will undertake a detailed investigation of these new areas of opportunity, working closely and collaboratively with the industry to explore and suggest opportunities to benefit the industry and advertisers. Managed by research and strategy consultancy MTM, the Consortium will conduct a programme of European industry seminars in March 2018. A major report, summarising the Consortium’s conclusions and recommendations, will be published in Q2 2018 and presented to industry stakeholders at key events through the year.

The Consortium is open to conversations with qualified TV industry executives interested in discussing future opportunities in relation to TV data. Executives can express their interest or request more information by emailing Consortium@mtmlondon.com.

Jamie West, Deputy Managing Director of Sky Media UK & Group Director of Advanced Advertising, said: “TV has moved far away from being the piece of furniture in the corner of the room. The cross- border and cross-device nature of content means that we need to ensure that as the industry innovates we are able to harness data to increase effectiveness in planning, execution and analysis. More impactful, consistent, joined-up and brand safe campaigns is what is demanded by advertisers and we need to make it as simple as possible.

Philip Duffield, Adobe Advertising Cloud Managing Director, EMEA at Adobe said: “We believe there is a large opportunity to introduce advanced audience measures across linear, addressable, and connected TV – but the industry must collaborate and work together to make this happen.”

Abbas Tahzib, Chief Revenue Officer at TVBeat, said: “The new technologies now available to deliver forecasting and planning across all TV properties will deliver both reach extension and targeting opportunities to further TV’s competitive position. Extending existing collaborations can only speed up this process across Europe. We look forward to engaging with the industry to develop these collaborations and to develop proposals that the industry can support.”

TS Kelly, SVP Research at Alphonso, said: “There are exciting new opportunities for broadcasters resulting from innovations in TV data – which can enable a better understanding of consumers as well as new types of ad products and services, particularly in the areas of addressable TV and closed-loop attribution for TV ads.”

Jon Chase, Chair of EACA’s Media Agencies Council, commented: “As audiences increasingly view content via various locations, devices and formats, the line between TV and digital video is blurring! Progress is being made to develop new techniques for cross-platform audience measurement and targeting, but more cross-industry and cross-border efforts are required to further enhance and harmonise measurement standards and practices. As a result, EACA welcomes and supports the ambition of this initiative.”

Katty Roberfroid, Director General of egta, said: “Regardless of the side of the industry we work on, the general consensus is that the lack of harmonization in standards and metrics must be addressed. We believe that the TV industry must take a pioneer role to foster improvement in this field. Through the AV Currency Working Group, our latest insight publication on Advances in Hybrid Television Audience Measurement and other upcoming initiatives, egta’s goal is to continuously contribute to the on-going discussions and contribute to the creation of the new generation of television audience measurement.”