MUMBAI: Broadband communications company Charter Communications, Inc. and TNS Media Research have entered into an agreement to launch video audience measurement services in Los Angeles.
Charter will utilise TNS audience measurement services to maximise efficiencies when building custom television advertising campaigns and promotional schedules internally and externally. The service will also provide additional information for programming services as well as offering added revenue opportunities. "We are pleased about our partnership and the fact that it will afford cable networks and advertisers valuable insight about the digital cable environment," said Charter senior vice president advertising sales Jim Heneghan.
Beginning this month, Charter Communications will provide aggregated and anonymous viewing data from 55,000 households in the Los Angeles. TNS will process the aggregated data and allow for next-day analysis through InfoSys, the most widely used media analysis and planning system in the world. InfoSys allows end-users to analyze media data in depth including day part and program studies, target group studies, lead in/lead out studies, duplication analyses, minute-by-minute flow studies and competitive reports.
Charter's cable service provides its customers with an array of video programming options, including services in which customers choose to interact with Charter or others through Charter's broadband technology. Charter values its customers' privacy and considers personally identifiable information and viewing preferences contained in Charter's business records to be strictly confidential. Unless customers provide consent through an express opt-in process, Charter only provides aggregated and/or anonymized information to Audience Measurement services, such as TNS. A complete statement of Charter's privacy policies can be found at www.charter.com.
The Charter partnership further solidifies TNS' entry into the US marketplace for digital TV audience measurement services. Additionally, TNS has been providing media research in the US for many years; including ad spend tracking as well as ad copy and TV pilot testing.
"The increased popularity of digital services, DVR, VOD and iTV has compromised traditional methods of measuring TV audiences. TNS is at the forefront of the digital revolution in video and radio measurement and is pleased to be partnering with Charter Communications to explore the new opportunities presented by digital set-top box data," said TNS Media Research chief operating officer George Shababb.
