Poland’s National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT) has begun preparatory work with PBI (Polish Internet Research) to develop the principles of cooperation for audience measurement of TV channels distributed online via OTT platforms.
Commenting on the development, KRRiT’s president Witold Kolodziejski said: “This is an important step towards achieving full transparency in the area of measuring the audience of television channels, which, apart from terrestrial television and platforms belonging to the broadcasters themselves, are also available on the internet. At the same time, such projects may allow the introduction of the must measure principle into the Polish media ecosystem, which could operate under the statutory must carry/must offer obligation. As a result, broadcasters could obtain tools to measure the audience of their channels available on OTT online platforms”.
The proposed solution will allow the analysis of audience measurement of OTT services described as audio or video platforms.
Thanks to appropriate scripts and categorisation rules, both broadcasters and advertisers will be able to obtain information about the time of contact with a given TV channel, along with the number of viewers/listeners and their profile.
Pawel Laskowski, president of PBI, added: “In the results of the study, we will be able to precisely present the results of both audio/video platforms, as well as the viewership of radio and TV broadcasters. The proposed scripts “can” classify whether a given player plays content on demand or broadcasts a live TV signal”.
KRRiT notes that the assumptions of the project allow, already at the pilot stage, to cover the first OTT services with full reporting. The presentation of the results may take place as early as this November. Advanced talks with leading platforms of this type are currently underway.
It adds that its president’s initiative is another step towards obtaining an agreement between broadcasters and owners of OTT online platforms. Broadcasters receive data on their broader online audience, and OTT platforms will have independent time measurement on their sites or on a given TV player. Thanks to the measurement, the viewership of OTT platforms on the internet will be included in the ratings of broadcast TV stations, including ratings for advertisements. Above all, however, it will benefit viewers who will have a wider choice of access to live TV channels, regardless of the type of technology used.