What you need to know:

• TV and video players face a fracturing of currencies as the major broadcasters keep faith with OzTAM and its total TV currency, VOZ, while Foxtel appears intent to carve its own path and push deeper towards digital metrics and YouTube declines to join.
• The next 12 months could prove pivotal for the future of TV and video measurement as the main players set out their stalls.
• Nine, Foxtel, YouTube signalled their intent at the Future of TV Advertising, with Nine sales chief Michael Stephenson warning those mulling breakaway currencies that putting the lid back on the box is not an option if it doesn't go to plan.
• Vevo’s revenue chief Natalie Gabathuler-Scully thinks multiple currencies are inevitable.

Split screens

Nine Chief Sales Officer Michael Stephenson urged industry alignment around OzTAM and VOZ TV and video measurement from broadcasters and video platforms such as YouTube to avoid "total chaos" – but Foxtel Media CEO Mark Frain has signalled the News Corp unit will forge its own path to all-digital audience measurement while YouTube says it considered but won’t be joining the OzTAM or VOZ party, citing privacy concerns.

The split in agendas signals the increased likelihood of Australia following the US market into multiple measurement systems for TV and video, a development the US-based Chief Research and Analytics Officer at CBS/Paramount, Radha Subramanyam said was not ideal but irreversible. 

Frain told the Future of TV Advertising conference that Foxtel aims to convert TV viewing data from its million set top boxes into digital impressions, mirroring the approach that Sky has taken in the UK and enabling agencies to take a similar trading approach to digital video and terrestrial TV.

“There is $3bn of [TV advertising spend] that is traded in one way, then $2-$3bn worth of online video in another pillar. Our goal is to make a leap into the digital pillar,” said Frain. "It's about making a bet on how we move away from old metrics on television to new metrcis that are being applied to streaming TV. We are embarking on a journey to look at how do we extrapolate those [TV] audiences to impressions. We want to take say, 2 million in terms of an average audience, and turn it into impressions. The faster, in our view, we get to that side, the better for our customers and our agencies."

Frain said "there's no doubt" Nine, Seven, Ten and SBS would do the same but they'll be "a little bit behind" Foxtel's deadline. "That's not an arrogant statement, it's just based on a business now that's got customers, 70 per cent of which are streaming," he said.

Time's up?

Those comments are a clear signal solidarity is sliding among broadcasters around unified terrestrial, pay TV and streaming measurement although Foxtel has always behaved as a maverick – TV networks and Foxtel endure a pragmatic but often prickly alliance.  

Frain nodded to OzTAM’s ambition of creating a world-first total TV currency, but said it has taken too long to develop, leading advertisers trapped in a vacuum and seeking alternative measurement sources.

“If we end up with [a total TV] currency … wonderful,” said Frain. In the meantime, “we will lean in and make measurement the best we possibly can, whether that is working with Doug [Peiffer, OzTAM CEO] and saying ‘we have a million set top boxes, should we lend them to you to improve TV measurement in Australia?’ Let’s have that conversation.”

YouTube ANZ lead Caroline Oates questioned how the definition of 'total TV' could be accurate without including YouTube. Asked whether the online video platform behemoth would join the OzTAM/VOZ currency, she rejected the invitation citing Google’s privacy concerns – even should it prove technically possible.

“A few years back, I'd probably have said, yeah, sure," Oates said. "I think now do we need some sort of cross media measurement? We need that common language. We need to stop new silos springing up as the market develops. Is the answer to that OzTAM as it currently stands? I think I'm less sure – and I'm less sure both from a definitions perspective. I don't understand how we can talk around total TV in the Aussie market not inclusive of YouTube. I don’t think it is as simplisitic as would [Youtube] want to be part of [OzTAM and VOZ]. But do we want to be part of an industry solution around cross-media [measurement]? Yes,” said Oates. However, she underlined that Google's appetite for new currencies is predicated on “not building for yesterday”.

Rallying cry

Nine’s Michael Stephenson rejected suggestions OzTAM has been a closed shop. He called for other broadcasters and platforms to become part of VOZ, which he said would launch May 1 and “become the currency … on 1 January [2024] or thereabouts” when the plan is to turn off legacy TAM data.

“It has never been [a private party] … Anyone can come and be a part of OzTAM. [But] so that we have consistency of currency, you need to be measured the same way that everybody else in OzTAM is. If you can do that, no problem,” said Stephenson. “Up until this point, with all due respect to Google, they have said no. That might change in the future. It would be amazing if it does, because I don’t think there is a single person in this room that thinks having multiple currencies and ways of measuring things is smart.” He urged detractors, onstage and otherwise, to “stop throwing pebbles from the sides” and work to create a “world first” total TV currency.

“Anybody who is prepared to be measured by OzTAM can be a part of it," said Stephenson. "I would love to stand here in 12 months time and see more than the existing shareholders involved.”

Radha Subramanyam, Chief Research and Analytics Officer at CBS/Paramount said the US now operates with multiple measurement systems and currencies, with the industry working to create shared IDs that can be used across networks. But she is "fascinated" by VOZ and keen to learn more. “In the US, we don’t believe there can be just one [currency] … what we are hoping for is interoperability. But if I could only have one, I’d be a lot more rested.” 

Privacy pinch?

Caroline Oates said Google's privacy issue relates to OzTAM deploying a software development kit (SDK) onto publisher sites to calculate video player measurement (VPM). That includes a piece of code that attaches a unique identifier to live or on-demand content. Walled gardens in general aren’t keen on third party code.

“From a privacy perspective, using an SDK on the site, I think that’s an area of concern for YouTube. Privacy comes first and that is not going to change any time soon," said Oates.

“So when we think around an industry coming together, this isn't around … OzTAM and does it have to keep working exactly the way it's always worked. It’s how do we make sure there is a measurement that is fit for the future and fit for the way consumers are now consuming,” added Oates.

What has been the measurement “gold standard” in the past will not necessarily be the currency of the future, Oates suggested. She favours a “gold standard that’s going to be reflective of how consumers are viewing and the players that are in the marketplace”. In the meantime, she said Ipsos’ digital currency could provide an alternative solution.

“If you look at the Ipsos currency [contracted by the IAB to replace Nielsen two years ago and partially launched in February 2023] that later this year – hopefully it's not another VOZ story – will also incorporate OzTAM data alongside, for example, YouTube data ...If you had asked us [Google] even a year or two ago would we be looking at that, we’d have been like ‘no chance’. Now we have got to [a position of] ‘I think we can make progress’. And I think that is real progress,” Oates suggested.

Shift or bust

Frain agreed that “SDKs going into global players is not going to happen” and pointed out it has taken “a couple of years” to get to the point where Kayo can be measured via OzTAM’s VPM. “That’s one local platform. There are going to be ten or 15 more to come. So we’ve probably got to come up with a different way to do that moving forward.”

He said the US approach of sharing IDs, “could be a different model that we could look at”, but ultimately forecast fragmentation of Australia’s measurement and systems.

“I think there will be a bit of fracturing, inevitably. Do they survive and become a currency in their own right? To be confirmed.”

Frain argued incoming fragmentation is the result of “the never ending wait” for cross-media currencies. “Clients are saying 'anything is better than nothing, so I will trade it that way on your data' – and that’s where inevitably there’s fracturing. Because some clients are saying ‘I’ll trade on those million set top boxes, let’s do it tomorrow.’ That is the reality.”

Pandora's box?

Nine’s Michael Stephenson warned that developing multiple currencies in market risks backfiring.

“It would create complete chaos for everybody. It would create more hard work that we’ve ever seen before. So having a single currency that is supplemented with additional data sources and data sets makes sense [but not multiple currencies].”

He suggested the US TV networks are already ruing their move to a multi-currency market.

“If they had their time again, they would unravel that at a rapid rate. They don’t want that as an outcome, it’s just the way it has evolved. We have the opportunity here for that not to be the case.”

Vevo’s Natalie Gabathuler-Scully suggested the broader market will inevitably end up fractured.

“I think we're going to be in a world of multi currencies … it's going to depend on what advertisers are looking for, how they're measuring and … and what vendors they choose to use to measure that," she told the conference. 

"Unfortunately, as a publisher, I think we're going to be in a place where we're going to have to work with those vendors and have to live in that space rather than having one currency that is traded across the board,” she said. “I don't think it's one size fits all.”