Ten boss Hamish McLennan has called for digital and social metrics to be included in the TV audience currency as the network's business model evolves.
Speaking at an International Advertisers Association panel session in Sydney this morning, McLennan said that the way broader audiences are measured "needs to become more sophisticated, it is not optimal."
Fresh off the plane from Sochi himself, McLennan said the Olympics had driven up digital audiences via Ten Play 73% year on year and that the data that Ten accrued from people watching on tablets was more granular.
"At a micro level, when you look at Olympics data, we can see people are watching [snowboarder] Torah Bright [at any given time] on their iPads. It is incredibly accurate data. But it is not reflected in OzTam's results. We need to pull that together very quickly."
Doug Peiffer, OzTam CEO told AdNews he "recognises the pressure [McLennan] is under", and that the calls from all networks to capture every viewer in different forms grew louder by the day. He said OzTam was working on a solution but that it would take time to be credible.
"Every digital publisher has access to the own metrics but it doesn't line up to the way TV ratings are done." He said that while networks' server data would give streaming starts "they do not give you duration. If calculated like ratings [those numbers] would be significantly less."
He said OzTam is "looking at ways to capture that data and make it consistent [with panel data]" but stressed that it was not straightforward. "This stuff is not linear, in a lot of cases the ad load is different - pre-rolls, mid-rolls, end-rolls - so we have to work out how to make that consistent. We hear the call from all broadcasters but it just takes time."
Peiffer pointed to OzTam's latest Multi-Screen Report, which shows that mobile and tablet use was still low relative to live and playback TV via TV sets. He acknowledged that data presented there was a year old and that views via mobile and tablet was growing "but nobody in the world has stiched that together yet."
McLennan, said Peiffer, "sees that growth, I get it from every TV station, we are working on a solution".
That solution is likely to be available in early 2015.
Click the image below download the multi-screen report.
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