OzTAM celebrates 10 years
As OzTAM celebrates its 10th birthday, we catch up with the organisation’s chief executive Kate Inglis-Clark to discuss OzTAM’s achievements and review what's next for television audience measurement in Australia.
Congratulations on the recent 10th anniversary. What have been the greatest achievements or milestones for OzTAM since its launch?
In a decade of change and service enhancement, our focus has been on keeping the OzTAM service relevant. This requires continual dialogue with our clients and the wider industry to ensure OzTAM delivers an audience measurement service commensurate with television’s position in the market.
Among OzTAM’s greatest achievements are:
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The delivery of a world-class system allowing any client to subscribe to the elemental data service, which allows minute-by-minute viewing analysis
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The establishment of broad industry consultative groups to ensure the service is transparent, responsive, consistent, credible and meets industry needs
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Fostering the development of an open software market in which clients now have a choice of 15 independent third party software suppliers, seven of which are Gold Standard accredited
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The inclusion of PVR households in the measurement panel. Australia is only the ninth country in the world to measure Time Shift Viewing, permitting much greater understanding of viewer behaviour. |
How would you describe OzTAM's role?
OzTAM’s remit is as clear today as when the organisation was established in 2000: to provide a robust, credible and – crucially – neutral and independent data service that reflects actual viewing in Australian television households.
How does Australia's television audience measurement system compare to the rest of the world?
We can confidently say – and are proud of the fact – that Australian television audience measurement is world-class.
For example, Australia has had minute-by-minute measurement since people meters were introduced in this market back in 1991. Even today, minute-by-minute data is only available selectively in markets overseas.
More recently, Australia became just the ninth country in the world to measure and report Time Shift Viewing.
In terms of panel size relative to the overall population, OzTAM’s metropolitan panel of 3,035 homes is comparatively large.
How is OzTAM keeping pace with the rapid changes occurring in the television landscape?
OzTAM is in continual dialogue with clients and industry to ensure we meet their needs. We also keep a close eye on issues and developments in television audience measurement overseas. Our moves are deliberate and considered, with the focus on remaining relevant and achieving consensus. We must continue to develop the OzTAM service in the most cost-effective and meaningful way for our clients, because OzTAM data is a considerable investment for them.
An example of this process is OzTAM’s new Time Shift Viewing (TSV) service. A two-year process of industry consultation, development and testing preceded the launch of TSV to ensure that the enhanced service was what the industry required.
Does OzTAM plan to introduce online TV viewing measurement? What stage are these plans at, and what sort of timeline are you working to?
OzTAM has begun to investigate the potential of measuring online viewing of broadcast television content, for example, ‘catch up TV’ services.
This process will involve gaining a deeper understanding of the changing viewing behaviours that new technology is facilitating, and examining opportunities to service clients’ needs for it. This is not a quick or casual exercise and measuring viewing on PCs would involve significant capital investment – so we must ascertain what our clients require.
OzTAM’s investigations are in the early stages and we will continue discussions with our clients as this process continues.
What are the key priorities for OzTAM?
Our priority remains to keep the OzTAM service relevant to our clients and ensuring we continue to deliver a measurement service that is truly world-class.
Published June 2010