IOC officials are understandably exuberant over media coverage of the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, reporting a record amount of content and viewers worldwide.

For Paris 2024, host broadcaster Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) is producing over 11,000 hours of content—more than any previous Olympic Games, with the record output across both TV and digital platforms representing a 15.8% increase on the amount of content produced for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.

“This includes more athlete-centric coverage and behind- the-scenes material, as well as cinematic lenses with a shallow depth of field to enhance the overall visual experience for the viewer,” the IOC said. “In addition, new dynamic, data-driven graphics are being used to display athletes’ performances in minute detail, while a multitude of camera angles are helping to fully immerse fans in their favorite sports. The immersive coverage being produced by OBS is already attracting record audiences on TV and digital platforms for media rights holders around the world.”

“The audiences benefit from the incredible images going to the world from Olympic Broadcasting Services and our Media Rights-Holders,” said IOC President Thomas Bach on Friday. “We are on track for more than half the world’s population to follow the Olympic Games Paris 2024.

For the host nation, the Opening Ceremony broadcast by France Télévisions attracted a record 23.4 million viewers, representing an 83.3% audience share, according to the IOC.

In the United States, NBC and Peacock registered the most-watched Opening Ceremony for an Olympic Games edition since London 2012, with 28.6 million viewers, while the total minutes consumed by the end of the opening weekend surpassed 1.1 billion across Telemundo, Universo and Peacock streaming and social media platforms, representing a 65% increase compared to the same stage of Tokyo 2020.

Warner Bros. Discovery, which is broadcasting the Games in Europe and on its streaming platforms Max and discovery+, says its total unique streaming viewers for Paris 2024 had already exceeded those from the whole of Tokyo 2020 after just two days of coverage. Across both Max and discovery+, Paris 2024 has also already driven almost one billion streaming minutes, more than seven times higher than at the same point of Tokyo 2020 and already representing 75 per cent of the total minutes from those Games, the IOC reported.

SAN FRANCISCO—Samba TV and TikTok today released the findings of a first-of-its-kind partnered study measuring the effectiveness of advertising on the global entertainment platform to deliver awareness and conversion into viewership of shows, movies, and live events.

As the media landscape continues to fragment, content providers are eager to identify the most effective ways to drive “tune-in” beyond traditional television campaigns. To assess the value of TikTok advertising to deliver against the emerging currency of viewership, the company tapped data and measurement company Samba TV to commission over 30 independent tune-in studies across a variety of advertisers and program genres to measure the value of TikTok at driving viewership from the small screen to the big screen.

The findings provide new insights for advertisers into how best they can identify not only incremental audiences but viewers that are likely to engage more deeply with their content than other acquisition efforts. Samba TV found that 97% of TikTok campaigns contributed incremental tune-ins, driving audiences who were exposed to ads to go on to view the program. On average, TikTok campaigns saw a statistically significant lift in tune-ins of 159%.

Importantly, these were not just casual viewers—TikTok’s campaigns drove highly-engaged viewers who tuned in after exposure to ads on TikTok and logged an average watch time of 86 minutes, a 26% increase in consumption compared to the control group, TikTok said.

"Our goal at TikTok is to help brands reach, connect, and engage with new audiences in an entertaining and impactful way," said Jorge Ruiz, Global Head of Marketing Science at TikTok. "Our research with Samba TV showcases the power of TikTok's unique value proposition for advertisers seeking to drive newfound levels of entertaining and effective engagement."

“Results of our measurement study demonstrate that TikTok can drive conversion for other streaming providers and other entertainment platforms. As the top entertainment destination for Gen Z globally, TikTok is a highly-effective platform for tapping into not only the most engaged young audiences, but also a diverse set of viewers,” said Ashwin Navin, Co-Founder and CEO of Samba TV. “Our work together further showcases TikTok is a top advertising destination for entertainment marketers looking to drive engagement and viewership, as test cases saw triple-digit lift on average, kept viewers engaged for longer periods of time, and delivered a strong ROI as a platform for driving eyeballs to their intended destination.”

TikTok says it selected Samba TV to conduct a series of tune-in measurement studies because of the depth and breadth of measurement capabilities, found to be the most representative in the U.S. 

In addition to measuring advertisers' campaigns on TikTok, Samba TV also tracked real-time television advertising for that same show or event. The studies found that 45% of TikTok tune-ins were not exposed to the TV portion of the campaign, suggesting that TikTok is an effective channel for reaching viewers who may not watch traditional TV advertising. In fact, Samba TV data found that TikTok campaigns were six times more likely to reach light TV viewers than linear television. In terms of efficiency, TikTok was found to be 1.2x more cost-efficient than TV at driving tune-ins, with a median cost per tune-in for TikTok of only $1.06.

LONDON—“Stranger Things” is widely regarded as one of the most popular television series currently on air, but how Netflix measured its, and all of its other shows, viewership has been somewhat of a mystery as it does not use traditional Nielsen ratings. A recent letter submitted to the U.K.’s Parliament revealed some of the streamer’s method, sorting its viewers into three categories—“starters,” “watchers” and “completers.”

Responding to Parliament’s inquiry into “public service broadcasting in the age of video on-demand,” Netflix detailed how it shares viewership data with show creators to help determine whether a show should be canceled or not. Essentially, the streamer breaks down a show’s viewers as either a starter (watches two minutes of a film or one episode of a TV program) or a completer (watches 90% of a film or season of a show) for the first seven and 28 days a program is available. Watchers are viewers who watch 70% of a film or a single episode of a TV show; those numbers Netflix selectively shares with creators and the public, like when it announced the third season of “Stranger Things” as the “most watched season to date” with 64 million watchers.

Netflix believes that sharing starters and completers data with creatives gives “a broader understanding of how members engage with their title from start to finish. … Depending on how useful our partners find this data, we will consider sharing it in more countries outside Europe and North America.”

In a story from The Verge, it is explained that Netflix uses these numbers when considering whether a show should be renewed or canceled. That is determined, Verge writes, based on a ratio of the cost of the show to the viewership and how it helps in retaining subscribers and bringing in new ones.

During an earnings call this past January, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos said that he expects the company to begin sharing more of this data with creators.

TV measurement is going through big changes, according to a new whitepaper from TiVo.

After years of audience estimates being based on small samples or panels of viewer, big data has come to TV in the form of set-top-box data and automated content recognition.

Those new forms of data “are set to radically change the way marketers, networks and broadcasters measure TV viewership, plan media buys and execute ad campaigns,” TiVo says.

While not mentioning Nielsen by name, the report says that using old-school TV measurement—in a digital age is creating skepticism about measurement from networks and marketers.

“The root of this growing skepticism is the continued reliance on small panels – numbering in the tens of thousands of households – to represent the TV viewing behavior of 120+ million U.S. households. As one interview subject with a background in statistics put it, ‘modeling the entire population from such a small sample necessitates lots of assumptions and risks many inaccuracies,’” the report says.

Nielsen stands by its approach.

“To accurately measure anything, you need to be able to directly observe it and sample it in a representative way. That is why our industry standard panel is and will continue to be the foundation of television measurement,” said Kelly Abcarian, senior vice president, product leadership at Nielsen.

“Panels are purposely built for persons level media measurement, while big data is a byproduct of a machine. So not only is this device level data instead of persons level data, but it is also merely an unrepresentative bigger sample. A sample that is incomplete, biased and discriminates against those excluded from its measurement is a problem regardless of its size. If big data comes more from high rises, city dwellers or apartments instead of private residences, meaning you don’t get data from all parts of the market and you don’t have a truth set that can be used for adjustments, you can’t pretend it doesn't matter,” Abcarian said. “As we have seen in digital, when data is not accurate or transparent, this results in under delivery of the ROI goals and advertisers will either lose confidence in television as a medium, or the agency, or both.”

Measurement is a more complicated proposition now than when there were three networks and families watched on TV set in the living room. Now there are new platforms and devices and an explosion of content. Marketers also have experience with digital media, which promises precise measurement, targeted audiences and feedback on how users responded to content and advertising.

TiVo says the new forms of viewing data are being collected at scale, are highly granular, are being built for new viewing methods and can be integrated into marketing models.

Set-top-box data is the largest source of TV viewing data at this point. One downside, however is that because of the fragmented nature of the cable industry combining data from different operators can be tricky.

“The biggest problem – and one that limits the number of companies willing to even tackle STB data aggregation – is dealing with the variety of file formats, data structures and levels of granularity,” the TiVo report said. “Concerns about how well STB data reflects the overall population persist, since 17%of TV households rely purely on over-the-air signals and an increasing number of younger households are cutting the cord.”

Data based on automated content recognition is available from fewer viewers at this point.

“Manufacturers are only beginning to share ACR data with other companies or withholding it completely, limiting the reach of ACR data available today,” the report says. “Vizio is a notable exception, but census-level ACR data availability would require active participation from major manufacturers – and none appear willing to cooperate with others.”

On the plus side, the TiVo report says ACR data collection benefits from its flexibility, allowing the capture of viewing data across linear, DVR and smart TV app viewing, although there may be data gaps in VOD and some long-tail content due to watermarking requirements.

It is tough to combine set-top-box viewing data with commercial logs, the report says.

“ACR technology enables the tracking of ad units at the individual device level without having to rely upon commercial as-run logs. This allows for faster reporting on ad delivery and more accurate data for addressable TV advertising. Nonetheless, taking advantage of this technology requires advertisers to incorporate ACR-ready watermarks during the production and distribution process,” the report said.

The presence of clear, trackable consumer conversion activity is essential, as with all attribution, the report added.

While the new methods of audience data collection have advantages, adopting them faces hurdles, the report says. Those included:

• Industry inertia and the currency conundrum: “Despite the limitations of traditional, panel-based TV measurement, it is the currency by which billions of dollars of TV advertising is bought and sold. And, it is no small task to shift from today’s gross rating point (GRP)-based TV buying model to the impression-based buying model required to maximize the benefits of next-gen TV data,” the report says.

• Data quality transparency:For next-gen TV data to become the new standard, data vendors will need to offer greater transparency into their collection approach, modeling methods and data sources.

• Consumer privacy and regulation: Digital data collection and targeting has long been subject to a set of self-regulatory guidelines, but the nascent nature of TV data collection means these standards are still evolving.

Looking ahead, greater data scale, quality standards, privacy protections and ease of access through aggregation will enable marketers and networks to more seamlessly leverage the strengths of both set-top-box and ACR data,” the report said.

“People-based marketing will become a reality as marketers and networks stop evaluating TV ad exposure in aggregate demographic groups and instead map individual TV viewing behavior to cross-device marketing exposure and attributed outcomes. Now that marketers have these capabilities across other screens, they will also demand them from TV,” the report said.