Future of TV Briefing: WTF is co-viewing measurement?

Co-viewing measurement estimates how many people are in the same room when an ad or program airs. Advertisers and sellers use co-viewing estimates to approximate ad exposure, but no definitive universal count exists. Two main approaches take direct measurements from small samples and project results across broader audiences: self-reported logging via devices like personal people meters and automated detection using in-room cameras or sensors. Nielsen uses personal people meters; TVision uses camera-based detection and supplies data to competitors such as VideoAmp. Co-viewing measurement depends on probabilistic modeling, which introduces accuracy and reliability challenges for ad measurement.

How is co-viewing measured? There are two main methods of measuring co-viewing, but both effectively take a direct co-viewing measurement from a smaller sample of viewers and then project that across the broader TV and streaming audience base. One method for taking the direct measurement is to have a sample of viewers physically log their TV watching. Nielsen deploys this through what are called personal people meters, in which the sample viewers press a button to tell Nielsen when they are in the room and are about to start watching something, how many people are in the room with them as well as when any of them leave the room.

The other direct measurement method is to have devices, such as a camera, in the same room as a TV that detect when the TV is on and scan the room for the number of people in it. This is the methodology used by TVision, which provides that data to one of Nielsen's chief rivals VideoAmp. Little surprise then that TVision commissioned marketing firm Matter More Media to produce a study on co-viewing measurement that calls into question Nielsen's co-viewing measurement methodology without calling out Nielsen by name.

Co-viewing measurement is a necessary evil in the TV and streaming ad market. Ad buyers and sellers want to know how many people may have seen an ad. Which is understandable, but there's no perfect way for counting how many people were actually in the room when an ad aired. Instead co-viewing measurement relies on probabilistic modeling, a solution that is simultaneously problematic.

Read at Digiday