Médiamétrie commits to cross-media measurement
New media drives everything and its touch is universal. Médiamétrie’s new chairman let clients know that cross-media measurement (plurimédia) is the priority. He’s backing it up was a €35 million investment.
follow-up to:
Accountability and technology are driving media measurement. These are also the twin drivers of media management. Content, however, drives media consumers. Who wins?
France’s media measurement agency Médiamétrie named Bruno Chetaille last October to lead the company. Replacing the retiring Jacqueline Aglietta, his background as TDF President was meant to reassure clients and reverse the perception within French media that Médiamétrie was moving too slowly into integrated platform measurement.
“Our clients are developing cross-media strategies,” he noted at Thursday’s press briefing, “and it is important that we accompany and support them.”
In practical terms, Médiamétrie will invest €35 million between now and 2012 on technical solutions for measuring new media platforms – the Internet and mobile TV – along with terrestrial TV. The result will be “an automatic measurement of mobile and fixed reception,” he explained.
More immediately Médiamétrie will expand the current television measurement panel from 3200 households to 5000 and upgrade existing meters. Technical details are sketchy but, apparently the new meters will be portable and signals measured will be “watermarked.”
Broadcasters faced with advertisers flocking to new media platforms are slowly reconciled to media buyers demands for new measurement systems. Actually, media buyers want ONE measurement system, passive, electronic and platform-neutral. Broadcasters resistance has only irritated the media buyers, impassively moving more money into new media.
The two leading American broadcast measurement houses – Arbitron and Nielsen – launched a pilot project – Apollo – for cross-media electronic measurement then proceeded to launch missiles at it and each other. Arbitron finally faced down resistance from the major American radio owners, settling a contract with the largest, Clear Channel Communications, late last month. (Read Arbitron’s release on the Clear Channel deal) Questions about costs and consequences fell to ad buyers demands.
Médiamétrie’s announcement follows by about a year the tenuous launch of a pilot project by UK radio measurement service RAJAR and TV measurement supplier BARB for a cross-platform “study” using Arbitron’s PPM electronic measurement device. Similar to RAJAR and BARB, Médiamétrie is structured as a foundation supported by all major French broadcasters and ad agencies.
Similar providers in other countries continue to look at measurement options, decisions coming slowly in bigger markets and faster in smaller markets. Broadcasters in Iceland, Norway and Denmark have recently launched electronic measurement at various levels of implementation and coverage.
July 6, 2007
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