Australia’s TV networks are pushing for a shift to weekly rating reporting to replace the current standard of overnight reporting.
According to The Australian, the change could happen by next month.
James Warburton, Chief Executive of Seven West Media, told The Aus that overnight ratings were “not the full picture.”
“TV Viewing has fundamentally changed, and the overall audience picture is very, very different to what it is when you look at the overnight audience data.”
Warburton also pointed out that in the US and the UK, the overnight model was abandoned a number of years ago.
Shifting to weekly rather than overnight ratings would mean that BVOD streaming services would be included in the overall ratings for a program. Overnight ratings, in contrast, focus just on linear TV.
Streaming services have become increasingly popular in Australia over the last few years. ThinkTV’s ad spend data saw a 52.7 per cent increase in BVOD revenue in the six months up to 31st December 2020.
At the time, ThinkTV Ceo Kim Portrate said, “BVOD revenue is performing exceptionally, in line with incredible audience growth. Post COVID, the medium has established a new baseline for viewership with more than 1.6 million hours of BVOD content being consumed every week with more and more Australians – advertisers and consumers alike – embracing the platform.”
TV ratings are measured by OzTAM.
