VOZ – aka Virtual Oz – Australia’s new television measurement system, has finally launched after months (nay, years!) of anticipation.
VOZ combines linear TV as well as BVOD (broadcast video on demand) to give a more thorough reflection of viewer habits.
Back last year, OzTAM CEO Doug Pfeiffer said “it’s been unclear though to what extent such ‘any time, any place, any screen’ viewing impacts the Total TV picture, until now.”
“Early VOZ data shows that BVOD brings a significant weekly reach gain across younger demographics.”
VOZ’s consolidated seven data breaks down the contribution of each platform to the overall numbers over the course of a week. In this case, that week was July 4 to July 10.
For example, the top watched program by a country mile was Ash Barty’s glorious Wimbledon win.
It scored a consolidated rating of 2,245,000 viewers combining BVOD and linear TV in both metro and regional markets.
95 per cent of that viewership came from the national linear TV ratings, but 5 per cent came from BVOD.
The top twenty most watched shows that week varied quite significantly in the proportion of linear TV to BVOD. The rest of the top five most watched shows were dominated by Seven News, while Nine News slipped in at fifth. All of them had 99 per cent viewership on linear TV and one per cent on BVOD, bar Nine News, which was 98 per cent to two per cent.
However, on Farmer Wants A Wife, which had multiple episodes in the top twenty, linear TV made up 88 per cent of the viewers for two episodes and 12 per cent on BVOD. One ep had 93 per cent on linear and seven per cent on BVOD.
How VOZ changes the TV landscape (and whether it does at all) is yet to unfold, but the industry is sure to have its eyes peeled and waiting.
