TAM Ireland has launched its VISTA Strategy, a plan for measuring viewing broadcaster content across all devices, including TVs, laptops/PCs, tablets and smartphones.
VISTA – which stands for Video Integration Strategy for a Total Audience – will be delivered in four stages, according to TAM Ireland.
The existing panel of 1,050 homes will continue to be at the heart of the future in measuring viewing to the TV set. A project is currently underway fusing existing datasets to provide the industry with an interim planning tool that augments the TAM data.
Each broadcaster already has big data regarding what content is being viewed on what device. However, this is measured by multiple providers and does not measure viewing in the same way that TAM Ireland does. Now they are exploring ways to provide a common metric that is comparable with TV ratings but based on streaming consumption.
To deliver viewer level measurement this demographic level data needs to be fused with the device based census data. This can be achieved in a number of ways. TAM Ireland is monitoring the various solutions that are being employed in other markets before deciding on the best approach for the Ireland.
In the most recent Total Viewing Study undertaken by IPSOS MRBI on behalf of TAM Ireland, it was found that TV is, by far, the most popular form of video – Live TV remains the key ingredient of the total viewing cake accounting for 72% of all video content viewed. When recorded TV is included, this rises to 84%. The shelf life of this TV content continues to extend through the range of formats and devices available.
According to Jill McGrath, TAM Ireland’s CEO said: “Our goal is to deliver a full cross platform measurement service to TAM Ireland standard. With the VISTA strategy broadcasters, agencies and all TAM Ireland customers can be confident that we are building on the strength of our panel, while embracing new data sources. By doing this we will sustain the gold standard that our customers expect.”
