CIMM Launches Smart TV/STB Data Combination Study

In the US, the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) has launched a study to understand how Smart TV and set-top box (STB) data can be combined to create datasets that measure all types of TV viewing.

Acquired by the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) in 2018, CIMM was founded nine years earlier as an industry R&D consortium, tasked with promoting innovation in audience measurement for television and cross-platform media. In January, CIMM announced it is working on a TV Attribution study, aiming to define best practices for better representation of television in attribution models.

Its new study, launched in partnership with Pre-Meditated Media and Janus Strategy & Insights, aims to develop best practices for combining Smart TV and STB data and provide data on most US households, bar those without broadband access or pay-TV subscriptions. To be conducted in two phases, the study will first interview ACR and STB data providers to examine sample size, data captured and reported, data processing rules and availability; and to identify the next steps needed. The second phase will involve interviewing those companies currently combining ACR and STB data, to learn about best practices and draw up design recommendations for creating a united reporting system.

CIMM MD and CEO Jane Clarke (pictured) explains: 'STB data are currently being made available to some media measurement vendors, and also to audience-based planning and buying platforms, but none of the vendors analyzing such data have a nationally representative footprint. This study aims to examine how smart TV data can complement STB data to increase the value of the combined datasets'.

Web site: www.cimm-us.org .