Networks Look to Turn Data Into Dollars

Ratings, shmatings. As more viewers go unmeasured watching shows on computers, tablets and smartphones, networks are dreaming up new methods for making their audiences add up in ways that are attractive to advertisers. “The game plan is a simple one -- to move away from the concept of audience measurement to performance measurement,” says David Poltrack, chief research officer at CBS Corp. Nickelodeon’s and MTV’s young viewers have made Viacom the poster child for the necessity of more comprehensive measurement. As part of Viacom’s recent restructuring, the company’s research organization brought together groups that work on first-party data capability, data science, data product and monetization, including an alternative currencies working group. Viacom’s measurement system aims not just to count viewers, but also to measure the impact its programs have in the social space specifically and the culture generally.

The amount of data Viacom collects to do that is humongous. Between its digital platforms, apps and social connections, data scientists at Viacom track each in-depth interaction a consumer has with its content and put it into a row in a database. The database now has 15 billion rows and covers 60 percent of US households. That means Viacom can single out consumers and know what they buy, what they say and what they watch. It also provides an opportunity to see its impact on consumers. “We see those changes in their consumer behavior, in their online activities, in their social conversations after they’ve been participating in a conversation with us, engaging in our content and being subject to some of the commercial messages that our partners bring to it,” executive vice president at Viacom Kern Schireson says. “We’re playing three-dimensional chess, where traditional media measurement is still checkers.”