Australia’s total TV currency VOZ is unlikely to launch until mid-year with legacy TV audience data likely to now run in parallel until early 2024.

However, it is understood the latest delay is unlikely to have major knock-on effects to the mooted BVOD marketplace, intended to enable frequency capped, targeted buys across Seven, Nine and Ten via the OzTam identifier, with the networks pushing ahead with the project after wobbles and a re-scope late last year.

TV bosses are apparently keen to tout the BVOD marketplace to buyers at their annual upfront showcases – ahead of negotiations with media buyers toward the end of the year.

If both VOZ and the BVOD marketplace suffer no further setbacks, they may yet arrive before Disney+ launches an ad-funded tier, now thought to scheduled for the fourth quarter.

VOZ: Nearly there?

The Virtual Australia currency wraps in BVOD and linear viewing across all screens by stitching together both panel and data from connected devices – phones, laptops and smart TVs. It is designed to give buyers a much clearer picture of de-duplicated linear and BVOD reach across screens. OzTAM has been working on the program for almost five years.

As well as technical complexities, VOZ requires agencies and crucially, third party providers, to integrate it into their systems. It is understood that some agencies are largely ready to start trading on the new currency, though others are lagging. Media buyers using the new currency will also want to run both data sets in parallel to compare and test.

Meanwhile, systems integration work by both agencies and third party players will require significant work. With Q4 and the Christmas run in the busiest time of the year, and January usually dead, February has been mooted as a cut off date for legacy data to be switched off.

OzTAM declined to comment on negotiations, but has underlined that further VOZ functionality will be live next month. The company, owned by the three major free to air networks, has previously urged agencies not to drag their feet.

At the same time, given ongoing delays to the new metric, agencies have found other ways of stitching data together to better understand de-duplicated reach, while Youtube has been pushing aggressively for advertisers to buy both BVOD and Youtube inventory through its DV360 platform.

“VOZ will definitely make buyers’ lives easier when it arrives,” one agency boss told Mi3. “Some clients will still be engaged, but the cynic in me questions whether it will be worth the wait. Five years is a long time in this industry.”

Disney+ delay?

Should both VOZ and the mooted BVOD marketplace launch without further delay, they may beat an ad tier from Disney+ to market. The firm was expected to be putting ads in front of its streamers in early 2023, sparking an arms race with Netflix and Foxtel’s Binge, the latter set to move out of soft-launch with an ad-tier next month.

Mi3 asked Disney to confirm that its Australian ad-tier is now scheduled for September/October but it declined, though it has not officially communicated a firm launch date beyond 2023.

Disney+ also declined to confirm that its launch would be preceded by a price rise to its ad-free streaming packages in order to seed its ad product. That approach, mirrored locally by Foxtel with Binge, has paid dividends in the US, where Disney+ is outstripping rivals Netflix and HBO in attracting new subscribers to its ad tier, according to data from Antenna.

How ad-funded streaming platforms feed into Australia's audience measurement and buying processes remains to be seen – with measurement challenges forming a key plank of the Future of TV conference in Sydney next month.