HbbTV Rating Monitor
The HbbTV Rating Monitor is a new development by bmt, which was supported by the Bavarian Regulatory Authority for Commercial Broadcasting. It is useful for TV stations whose ratings are not evaluated on a daily basis. The analysis tool provides real-time insights into the number, dwell time and reception paths of the connected HbbTV devices connected to the Internet. In freely adjustable slots, as well as over a freely adjustable period of time, the previous day or a certain period in the past, the usage can be analyzed provider-related. The measurement complies with all data protection regulations and does not collect any personal data.
Description
To date, audience figures have been determined mainly by telephone surveys of selected viewers or by technical equipment installed in TV households. The disadvantage of telephone surveys is that they cannot be conducted on a permanent basis and therefore do not allow any conclusions to be drawn about the popularity of individual programs. The number of participants called is limited for reasons of cost and is therefore susceptible to errors that result from the fact that the viewers called do not accurately represent the totality of all viewers statistically. To determine TV usage with HbbTV, the fact is used that HbbTV applications are started automatically when a TV program is called up and no user interaction is needed to detect the start of usage. A counter pulse is integrated into the application, which cyclically sends information at adjustable intervals to a server operated by bmt. Based on a database in which the usage data is stored, a web application provides different views to visualize interesting aspects of the usage. This data will also be available retrospectively, so that comparisons with past data are possible. Each program provider receives access data and can use it to retrieve the information for its program. The prerequisite for this is that the receiver has HbbTV technology built-in and the device is connected to the Internet. No personal data need be stored for the survey of current TV usage of a program. Thus, based on today's device population, there is already a significantly greater number of measurable devices available than with the previously mentioned methods, and the penetration of HbbTV will continue to increase in the coming years.
Impact
The HbbTV-Rating-Monitor platform is an additional way to determine the usage of TV programs for the optimization of program content. The tool is primarily used to measure the attractiveness of individual program elements compared to other programs, with the possibility of adapting a TV station's programming of a TV station, even at short notice. The focus is not currently on determining audience ratings as with traditional TV ratings measurement, as only some TV households meet the technical requirements, such as an HbbTV device connected to the Internet.
