Toby Dewar.
Toby Dewar, Interim CEO, Video Futures Collective
Measurement has not kept pace with streaming’s rapid growth within Australia’s increasingly diverse video landscape.
One of the biggest shifts in media is that consumers no longer distinguish between linear TV and streaming. They simply watch video - whether traditional linear channels, streaming services, or YouTube.
While advertisers can reach viewers through all these different platforms, a fully unified, cross-platform measurement system has remained out of reach.
This gap, between the reality of how people are served advertising and how advertisers track this connection, has become a major challenge for the media industry. It’s a challenge that the VFC, as the leading independent industry association representing Australia’s streaming platforms, is actively working to improve.
Different platforms use different methodologies, definitions and reporting standards. making direct comparisons difficult. Two platforms may both report reach, frequency or viewing time, but those metrics may not always be measured in the same way. This leaves all sides of the equation without a consistent method to understand performance across platforms, and means media buyers have to measure video differently across multiple disconnected channels.
As a result, advertisers struggle to optimise investment across platforms, agencies spend significant time reconciling data from multiple sources, and media owners face challenges demonstrating the true value of their audiences. Ultimately, the absence of a common standard reduces confidence in decision-making.
A problem we can’t afford to ignore
The measurement problem is becoming harder to ignore because streaming is no longer an experimental add-on to media plans. When it represented a smaller share of spend, marketers could tolerate imperfect measurement. But with WPP forecasting that streaming investment will grow 21.2% in 2026-2027, almost triple the growth rate of their 7.4% wider market forecast, the need for accurate cross-platform measurement is becoming critical.
Today, as it becomes a core component of media plans, scrutiny is rightfully growing.
Agencies are having to navigate inconsistent and siloed data signals, with key viewing data locked inside walled gardens, making it difficult to compare or consolidate results across screens.
Independent measurement also remains limited, meaning a significant portion of inventory is still not being fully or consistently measured across campaigns. There is currently no unified source of truth for combined streaming reach or for understanding streaming’s incremental contribution alongside linear TV.
Despite the gaps in measurement, streaming is already proving it delivers strong outcomes. It has an average attention rate of almost 80%, generating 123% more attention than scrollable social formats and has been shown to be twice as effective in achieving incremental business outcomes per dollar spent compared to any other platform in the total video landscape.
The more prominent streaming becomes within the media mix, the harder it becomes for marketers to justify decisions based on fragmented reporting. CMOs are under increasing pressure to justify and optimise spend in near real time.
The question is no longer "did the campaign work?" but “which platform delivered the greatest incremental reach?” and “which platform can demonstrate its impact?”
Markets work best when everyone trusts the numbers, and as digital advertising matures, reliable, independent measurement has become critical.
The global solution
International markets recognise that measurement infrastructure must evolve alongside viewing behaviour. Industry bodies, broadcasters, streaming platforms and measurement providers across the globe have spent years developing cross-platform measurement initiatives to unify fragmented viewing data. In markets like the US, UK and Europe, organisations like Nielsen and BARB are working alongside newer cross-platform solutions like AudienceProject, Origin, Nielsen One and VideoAmp.
Australia has an opportunity to learn from these markets and accelerate adoption rather than reinventing the wheel. The VFC is helping build that foundation, drawing on the global expertise of members including Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime, Disney Advertising, Samsung Ads, Foxtel/DAZN and Vevo, whose international counterparts are operating in more advanced measurement environments.
The VFC is now working directly with individual participants to test and validate a shared cross-platform measurement approach that is privacy-safe, independently-verified and will provide deduplicated reach and frequency across streaming and other platforms.
Partners across both large agency holding groups and independent agencies are already engaged, with strong early interest in the potential of the solution.
The VFC was formed to provide proof and articulation of streaming’s impact on driving media, marketing and business outcomes for brands through rigorous research and measurement projects.
The long-term ambition is market-wide adoption of our measurement solution, which we believe will restore trust among advertisers through independent, transparent measurement. This is essential if advertisers are to invest with confidence and unlock the full value of streaming in Australia’s evolving video ecosystem.