It's taken a while, but broadcasters, online publishers and advertisers could be close to agreeing a standardised system to measure online video viewing. The Broadband Measurement Working Group, a coalition of broadcasters, internet service providers and measurement bodies, is to start testing a new measurement metric next month, 18 months after starting out on its mission to create a universally recognised way of quantifying the millions of video views publishers are generating. The group brought together an eclectic cast including the BBC, ITV (LSE: ITV), C4, Five, BSkyB (NYSE: BSY), Virgin Media (NSDQ: VMED), BT (NYSE: BT), BARB, ABCe and the IPA.
Ron Coomber, chair of the BMWG and an advertising consultant at ITV, says (via NMA) that the group is waiting for some members to upgrade their video software - not exactly the highest priority in a recession - but he's confident that "everyone is still on board and hopefully we should have some data to crunch next month". Matt Simpson, chair of the IPA Digital Media Group and also group head of digital at OMD, says that "as TV overlaps online more, it's vital for online to develop tools that count across both platforms."
The BMWG approached ABCe to develop web standards which it hoped would then be accepted by Jicwebs, therefore creating an open standard of video traffic measurement available to everyone. It's a complicated project, not least because it set out to find ways to measure online, streaming video on demand viewing as well as offline download views. But can't come soon enough - a standard metric widely accepted by advertisers is needed now even more than it was in 2007 for publishers struggling to raise enough revenue to cover content production costs, let alone monetise their online output.
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