ARF Recommends Update for TV Households Definition

The Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) has issued a call for a change to the way the industry defines the basis of television audience measurement - away from 'TV households' to 'TV-accessible' households (TVA), covering those that do not own a set, but view content through other devices.

The recommendation reflects the findings of the latest ARF 'DASH' study, based on a survey of more than 10,000 adults, conducted online, in-person and by phone. The traditional 'TV households' definition counts households with at least one TV set. However, the latest DASH study has shown that 5% of US households do not own a set, with the majority of these having broadband access and consuming TV on devices through streaming services.

In its call, the ARF says this change in definition will account for these shifts in viewing. Paul Donato (pictured), Chief Research Officer at the ARF, comments: 'Forty-one per cent of consumers with television sets reported watching professionally produced programming on a device the previous day. These dynamics highlight the problems with cross-device measurement today. This finding in particular dilutes the 'representativeness' of ACR streams and makes calibration with a reference standard such as DASH essential for effective measurement.'

Web site: www.thearf.org .