Foxtel Upfront 2024: Foxtel Media and VideoAmp partner to change how Australia measures media
Existing ratings methodologies are struggling to keep pace with the shift to digital streaming platforms
Foxtel Media has announced its plans to change how media is bought, valued and sold in Australia. The company unveiled a new partnership with US-based, media measurement and optimisation software company, VideoAmp to develop a new measurement system that will capture viewing data from across Foxtel Group services.
Speaking at Foxtel Media’s 2024 Upfront, CEO Mark Frain said that the Group had reached a digital tipping point in viewership, with 66% (3.1 million subscribers) of the company’s customer base coming from its streaming services. Frain explained that existing ratings methodologies were struggling to keep pace with the shift in viewership to digital streaming platforms.
“As a whole, the Foxtel Group has more viewership data than ever before, and we need a sophisticated solution that can leverage these large datasets. VideoAmp is an established, proven entity in the US, and we’re excited to be working with them to create a new measurement system that’s fit for purpose and connects the dots between ad exposures, audiences, and outcomes,” said Frain.
The Foxtel Group holds viewership data for over four million subscribers. Under the FoxTest initiative, the new measurement system aims to support brands with advertiser appetite in moving away from small measurement panels, and towards the utilisation of premium and scaled data sets in order to deliver better business outcomes.
“The US television market has operated as a multiple currency marketplace for several years, and we are now seeing the Australian market come around to the concept as more cross-platform audience measurement is required, and brands and agencies flag concerns about economic headwinds,” said Frain.
VideoAmp's measurement services in the US currently is used by publishers including Warner Brothers Discovery, Disney, NBC Universal and Televisa Univision.
Foxtel Media and VideoAmp intend to stand up a proof of concept for streaming and linear measurement and currency in 2024 and will work with agencies and brands to define their next phase of work in 2025.
