MRG conference: The future arrived yesterday
Keynote: Nigel Walley, Decipher
The convergence of internet and TV is already bringing a huge level of complexity to the TV ecosystem, prompting Nigel Walley from Decipher to call for the delegates of the MRG conference to demand clarity, drive debate and not just react to the profound changes in the way that TV is being delivered and consumed.
Walley listed a mind-boggling array of revolutionary launches affecting the way we consume TV in 2010 alone: iPlayer and ITV Player on FreeSat; TV with broadband connections; SeeSaw; iPad; Freeview boxes you connect to Sky from; next generation widget TVs; Tesco TV; ITV Player and Sky Player on PS3; Sky Anytime+; Virgin Platform relaunch; Virgin ad targeting; Tesco interactive ads; Google TV; YouView; Sky AdSmart; ITV green button.
Opportunities that have been talked about conceptually for 10 years (for example, red button interaction on TV advertising putting products into your shopping basket) are now available via mainstream devices and services.
Walley spoke about four trends driving TV from its second to its third age: the web being incorporated into existing TV devices (eg Twitter feeds on X Factor); TV systems adopting web-like capability; new devices becoming TV devices and TV content becoming available on all connected devices within the home.
Multiply the technology involved in targeting people through advertising (EPG banners; 2G interactive; targeted in broadcast; Apps and PVR managed) by each platform (Sky; Virgin; simple FreeView; YouView and PS3) and the result is messy and confusing.
Walley challenged the MRG delegates to lead the demands for standardisation to simplify the developing ecosystem so they can measure it and rationalise it. Bringing together web and TV metrics to gain a much more granular understanding of new interesting and strange behaviours presents a huge challenge to the media research industry.
During questioning, Walley said that BARB’s role should not extend to measuring everything but that it should act as the bedrock to complementary research that uses a combination of set-top box data and panel data. They key is that the media research industry helps the users of their research and data to understand so they can define the required outcome and know what research tools need to be created.