ITV boss Adam Crozier says it’s becoming increasingly difficult to estimate the share of audience.
The comments came as the commercial broadcaster announced increased profits, but a fall in audiences.
ITV’s share of viewing was down 4% in the first half, with the decline in the main channel partly offset by a 2% improvement across the digital family of channels. ITV pointed to the lack of any major sporting event this year.
“All the broadcasters are working with Barb to try and move towards a time where you can measure audiences seamlessly across all viewing platforms. The problem at the moment is that you shouldn’t compare the different measurements as they’re all done on a different basis.”
Barb is currently carrying out a number of tests and Crozier acknowledged it could take up to three years for the measurement to be finalised.
Earlier this week Barb announced it would publish its first VOD data in September.
Increasing demand for on demand content has seen ITV Player grow long form video requests by 29%. Some 20% of online viewing is to live TV, VOD advertising was up, again by 20%
“We’re happy with the growth that we’re getting online and unlike many players in this market this is profitable growth because we own the IP,” Crozier said there were subtle shifts as people turned from DVD to online and beginning not to record shows because of the realisation it would later be available on catch up.
In addition to ITV Player the one-year old ITV Encore pay-TV and VOD service is performing well on Sky in the UK. Internationally, the commercial broadcaster has launched ITV Essentials for ex-pats and ITV Choice, launched initially in Asia and recently extended to South Africa.