Comscore and Samba TV boost cross-platform TV measurement in Europe
Comscore has partnered with Samba TV to harness ACR-based viewing insights from Smart TVs to demonstrate ad exposure and match that against business outcomes like purchase behaviour.
The deal applies to Europe and is part of an ambition to boost TV measurement and analytics globally. The companies claim their measurement capabilities are unmatched and that the partnership is a game-changer for global marketers.
Comscore has an ambition to provide television and digital audience measurement and analytics to help advertisers and media owners better understand the reach and impact of cross-platform advertising at an increasingly global level. The company has been proving the model in the US, where it combines digital insights with audience data from satellite, cable, IPTV and connected TV.
Now the company is turning its attention to Europe, working with partners who can provide audience insights via automatic content recognition (ACR), the technology that understands viewing at glass level on Smart TVs, thus revealing (with the usual privacy caveats) what people are watching, whether it is sourced from a set-top box, game console, other streaming device or directly from the Smart TV itself.
Comscore’s partnership with Samba TV in Europe will enable this kind of measurement and the insights that result from it, with the media measurement company declaring that it will be able to create “an unmatched measurement offer for this vital channel” [connected TV].
Samba TV calls the partnership “a game-changer for global marketers who care about performance, accuracy and data innovation.”
The first-party, real-time viewing data will be harvested using software embedded in Smart TVs and augmented by set-top boxes, and it will cover broadcast linear TV plus streaming to the television set. The viewing data will be available at programme level or series level and ad exposure can be linked to purchase behaviour, enabling stronger ad effectiveness studies, so helping advertisers understand their return on media investment.
When it comes to attribution, the television industry is increasingly focused on business outcomes (like web traffic or sales) rather than ‘just’ media outcomes, such as impressions or GRP (reach/frequency) ratings. Comscore wants to help support this trend.
Comscore has previously announced connected TV measurement partnerships in Italy and Sweden (with Auditel and MMS respectively, both covering digital premium video).
However, this latest partnership marks the start of an “aggressive” European expansion for this capability, and Germany and the UK will the first new markets to benefit from the deal. Comscore clients are already using the new measurement and analytics solution. Comscore is looking to take this ACR-based measurement worldwide, starting next year.
“We are delighted to be extending our TV measurement capabilities across Europe,” said Bill Livek, CEO and executive vice chair at Comscore.
“As a leader in this area for the US, we have a strategic opportunity to harness our valuable information in partnership with Samba TV and other key players in the region to create an unmatched measurement offer for this vital channel.”
Ashwin Navin, CEO and co-founder at Samba TV, added: “We are eager to leverage our massive, global scale of Smart TV data to augment the capabilities of leading measurement companies like Comscore to address the complexity of today’s media landscape.
“With the rapid shifts across TV viewing behaviour, advertisers and publishers can no longer expect their legacy approach to accurately quantify the size of audiences or the effectiveness of advertising. This partnership is a game changer for global marketers who care about performance, accuracy, and data innovation.”
John Moulding is the editor-in-chief of Videonet, a leading source of strategic insight, analysis and news about post-convergence television.