Increasing online viewership intensifies competition

As U.S. video viewers increase their multiplatform viewing habits, advertising firms’ demand for an integrated tool to measure both TV and online video viewing will intensify over the next year. A new report, Cross-Platform Ad Metrics & Reporting, shows 71 percent of U.S. broadband households access videos online, compared to 87% who watch traditional TV content. Younger audiences, ages 18-34, are even more inclined to watch online video, with 88% watching online compared to 90% who watch traditional TV.

Online video viewing is approaching parity with traditional TV, especially in key audience segments, which is increasing pressure on the top firms to develop a comprehensive tool to quantify and evaluate the impact of online video content. Right now, Nielsen, Kantar Media, TiVo, Arbitron, and Rentrak are the primary cross-platform digital video audience measurement firms in the U.S.

Mixed media are increasingly important to a key and growing segment of consumers, and companies need to get ahead of this trend with cross-platform metrics in order to assess, assign, and evaluate the overall media mix. Nielsen plans to release an integrated TV and online video product in 2011, but it is unclear how the industry will receive the combined video metric and, more importantly, if the firm will meet its expected deliverable goal. In Cross-Platform Ad Metrics & Reporting, Parks Associates lists universal metric definitions, standards, and data collection methods as necessary to ensure industry-wide adoption of a new metric.

Cross-Platform Ad Metrics & Reporting provides a competitive analysis of the leading digital TV and online video audience measurement firms in the U.S. The study employs a competitor analysis framework, using competitor profiling, to determine which digital video audience measurement firms are strategically positioned to provide an industry-recognized, cross-platform digital video audience metric standard. In addition to the competitor analysis, the report examines multiplatform video usage trends based on key audience demographics.