From set top meters to set top boxes – audience measurement for the digital world
George ShababbTNS Television and Radio Audience Research, United States
Anthony TaylorTNS, United Kingdom
THE RESEARCH ISSUE
The advent of the digital set top box (STB) has exacerbated a major challenge to traditional audience measurement that was already problematic even with analogue multi-channel TV distribution.
The proliferation of niche channels producing very low ratings compromises a traditional sample centric approach. In the United Kingdom, for example, of the 166 TV channels reported by BARB in January 2005, only 14 achieve an audience share that...