The TVB (the TV station advertising group) and the 4As (American Association of Advertising Agencies) have issued an analysis on replacing live-only program measure with live program plus one day of time-shifted viewing (L1).
“Live-only in local markets inadequately represents present-day consumption patterns when compared to national deliveries,” says an analysis issued by the 4As on January 11.
For a long time, TV station ad executives have complained that with time-shifted viewing now part of regular TV consumer behavior, media agencies and advertisers also need to change to new local TV measures — much as national TV networks have done with commercial ratings — with the help of Nielsen.
Nielsen has no commercial ratings for local TV stations.
The 4As also says that “as national buyers migrate to C7 ratings [the average commercial ratings plus seven days of time-shifted viewing] from C3 to account for current TV consumption patterns, it should be noted that live plus one ratings at the local level tie closely to C7 ratings [on the national level] on an index basis.”
The analysis says, for example, that adult 25-54 viewing indices of live plus one day of time-shifted viewing were 107 (in 2016-2017 TV season) and 108 (in 2015-2016). This compares to 104 for C7 (the average commercial ratings plus seven days of time-shifted viewing) for each of the 2016-2017 and 2015-2016 TV seasons.
By contrast, live-only program ratings were at a 76 index (2015-2016) and a 77 (2016-2017).
The findings came from a TVB analysis of Nielsen NPOWER data, looking at prime-time (Monday-Saturday 8-11 p.m.; Sun 7-11 p.m.) in 25 local people meter markets for five networks in 25-54 ratings for TV season September 21, 2015 through May 25, 2016 versus September 19, 2016 through May 24, 2017.
The 4As’ recommendation was that “the live[-only program] data would still be tabulated and available through Nielsen, just not as a published stream.”
A Nielsen rep added: “We support the TVB and 4A’s recommendations for enhanced data streams that go beyond live and same-day viewing, and better reflect the daily and time-shifted viewing habits of consumers.”
In past years, media agency executives have said time-shifted programming includes around 50% of TV commercial-skipping — something clients should not pay for, especially with Nielsen program-type ratings.
Around seven years ago, TV stations made a big push for the industry to include some time-shifted ratings used as the basis for TV marketers’ media buys.
