July 3, 2025 • 8 mins
How are the measurements for TV ratings actually taken?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Ask Fear and Greed, where we answer questions
about business, investing, economics, politics and more. I'm Michael Thompson
and hello Adam Lang.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hello, Michael. Here's me in an unusual position, standing in
for Sean.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
But filling in as the expert. And that is something
that you are very qualified to do, particularly in this area,
because it is about data, it is about TV, and
you have worked an entire career in media, in TV
and radio and all of these and you love data.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
So this feels like a.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Very natural fit.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Right, Yeah, all true, yep. Okay, tick tick tick, So far,
so good. Okay.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
The question today is about something that a lot of
people hear about but not necessarily fully understand. Where are
going to talk about TV ratings, specifically how the measurements
are actually taken and what it means. For instance, when
we hear that say, one point two million people watch
Master Chef for the Voice or something, and you hear
about it a lot in the news, and we heard
about it this week as well, when there was a
(00:59):
lot of talk around the number of people still watching
free to air and how that was all measured. And
also when we're talking about the project being axed recently
on Channel ten and its replacement ten News Plus, which
launched with two hundred and ninety one thousand viewers, substantially
less than the project was getting. And all of a sudden,
(01:20):
these questions are asked, how are these numbers actually measured?
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yes? Where do they come from? So let's kick off
with one of my biggest problems in life. Michael acronyms
OSTAM O z TAM. What does it mean? Oz TAM
stands for the Australian Television Audience Measurement System. It's the
official provider of television audience ratings for the metropolitan markets.
So that's obviously covering Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.
(01:45):
Together with Regional TAM which looks after regional audiences and
Nielsen which collects the data, it forms a national view
of television consumption. Okay, so with me? So what I so?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Yeah, I'm with you so far. But I'm thinking back
to when I was a kid. You would always hear
about those incredible people that were fortunate enough to get
a box that they plugged into their TV and it
somehow measured everything that they were watching, and that there
was like a thousand of these people and a thousand
of these boxes around the country, and that just by
(02:22):
encouraging them to watch a particular show, they could have
enormous influence on a show getting a second season or
a third season or.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Something like that. Really you knew who they were.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
And how they got chosen in the first place. How
does OSTAM know what people are watching? Is this story
about the boxes being plugged into the TV actually based
on fact?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
The magical device there is some truth to it. Os
TAM collects starter from a carefully selected panel Michael of
not a thousand, but more than two hundred and fifty
households in the metro areas, and they represent many thousands
of individuals who can watch TV content in those households.
All of them are very carefully chosen so that you
get not just the geography represented well, but each demographic, genders,
(03:06):
and so on. Each household has technology installed on their
television sets that captures the viewing data, including which program
is being watched, what channel, what time, for how long.
Viewers in the household then log in to indicate who
is watching at that time. That data is then weighted
to reflect the border metropolitan population, so.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
It's not that far from what I was talking about,
I mean, but to be one of those.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Part from the thousand to two hundred and fifty year
of spot on.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Okay, all right, I'm assuming similar kind of thing than
for regional viewers. I had thought that it was going
to be mostly metropolitan, but of course it would have
to measure regional.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Too, absolutely so. Yes, Regional TAM runs a similar panel
in Region Australia. Together, oz TAM and Regional TAM provide
a comprehensive picture of television audiences right across the country. Now,
this data is obviously crucial in helping networks make programming decisions,
but also to help advertisers determine where they should put
their campaigns based on the size and the characteristics of
(04:06):
the audience that each show can reach.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
All right, so that system would have been great a
decade ago. Yeah, twenty years ago, thirty years ago, forty
years ago. What about the fact that we just people
just don't watch live TV anymore as well, certainly not
as much as they used to. They do still watch
live TV, That's not right, they don't watch it as
much as they did. How does OzTAM handle that?
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah, it's been remarkable change, and it's an accelerating change, Michael,
as you're alluding to. In addition to the overnight ratings,
which measure live and same day viewing, os TAM also
provides something called consolidated seven and consolidated twenty eight ratings,
and they capture time shift of viewing for seven or
twenty eight days after the broadcast, so it's a cumulative
total as to who watched the programs, So you get
(04:53):
a picture.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Then over time, so time shifted being so you're watching
it on nine now or one of those one you're watching,
say Lego Masters a week after it went to air,
that would still count in the consolidated seven.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Yes, yeah, okay, quite right. And then sometimes two programs
are replayed at different.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Times, okay, yeah, and so they're able to kind of
console aggregate pictures. Yes, Now what about streaming then, Adam
and everyone watching shows on mobile devices and laptops and everything,
because we are getting further and further away now from
that box just capturing free to air data.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yeah, we're no longer limited to a set in a
lounge room at all. So os TAM has expanded its
measurement through two key initiatives. The first is OOZ and
that's Virtual Australia vo Z and that integrate STATU from
oz TM, Regional TAM and video player measurement across connected devices.
And the second is called Streamscape, which provides insights into
(05:50):
what Australians are watching on major streaming platforms like Netflix, Disney, Plast,
Prime Video on. More So, while it does not report
audience numbers for specific programs, it does give a clear
picture of what genres and platforms are popular, including free
video on demand services like nine Now seven Plus and
ABC I View I should mention ten players well, of
(06:11):
course and SBS on demand. Oh god, big favorite here?
Is it?
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Really? Of course it would be.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Yeah. They all have great catalogs. I think each of
them do.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Yeah. And it was surprising earlier this week we actually
saw the data from Streamscape that showed how many people
are still watching free to air TV and it.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Was sixty yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Yeah, of minutes watched, we're still free to air TV,
and nine percent was Netflix and then the rest was
kind of after that. And so, I mean, clearly the
talk of the death of free to air TV has
probably been a little exaggerated at this point.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Adam.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
But things it certainly have changed, right.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Yeah, definitely, and we're a long way from the death
of linear or aerial TV and it is the mothership
that's apply so much content in general. So yeah, it's
hard to look at it as just aerial TV and
just streaming in isolation.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Okay, but it is safe to say that os TAM
measuring measuring that audience. It is not just about live
TV anymore.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
It's not that, is correct. It's really about understanding the
quite full picture do you like that of visual content
consumption in Australia, And that is a cross of course
free tooware, subscription TV, all the catch up platforms and
the streaming devices.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
I'm sorry if that joke didn't get the reception you
were hoping for. I think it got the reception it deserved.
There we go, how about that all right? Thanks very much, Adam,
Thank you Igel. Now, if you've got your own question
for Fear and Greed, jump onto the website Fear and
Greed dot com dot au. It can be anything if
you want to. I mean, it doesn't need to just
be about audience measurement, but hey, go for it. So
(07:51):
if you can find a way to stump the data guru.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
I could do radio printed website. It's all sorts of things.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Outdoor media, yep, any of the above, all right, send you,
we send you a question through the website fearinggreed dot
com today you or any of the social media platforms.
I'm Michael Thompson and this is ask fear and greet
Speaker 2 (08:10):
H
Welcome to Ask Fear and Greed, where we answer questions
about business, investing, economics, politics and more. I'm Michael Thompson
and hello Adam Lang.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hello, Michael. Here's me in an unusual position, standing in
for Sean.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
But filling in as the expert. And that is something
that you are very qualified to do, particularly in this area,
because it is about data, it is about TV, and
you have worked an entire career in media, in TV
and radio and all of these and you love data.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
So this feels like a.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Very natural fit.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Right, Yeah, all true, yep. Okay, tick tick tick, So far,
so good. Okay.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
The question today is about something that a lot of
people hear about but not necessarily fully understand. Where are
going to talk about TV ratings, specifically how the measurements
are actually taken and what it means. For instance, when
we hear that say, one point two million people watch
Master Chef for the Voice or something, and you hear
about it a lot in the news, and we heard
about it this week as well, when there was a
(00:59):
lot of talk around the number of people still watching
free to air and how that was all measured. And
also when we're talking about the project being axed recently
on Channel ten and its replacement ten News Plus, which
launched with two hundred and ninety one thousand viewers, substantially
less than the project was getting. And all of a sudden,
(01:20):
these questions are asked, how are these numbers actually measured?
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yes? Where do they come from? So let's kick off
with one of my biggest problems in life. Michael acronyms
OSTAM O z TAM. What does it mean? Oz TAM
stands for the Australian Television Audience Measurement System. It's the
official provider of television audience ratings for the metropolitan markets.
So that's obviously covering Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.
(01:45):
Together with Regional TAM which looks after regional audiences and
Nielsen which collects the data, it forms a national view
of television consumption. Okay, so with me? So what I so?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Yeah, I'm with you so far. But I'm thinking back
to when I was a kid. You would always hear
about those incredible people that were fortunate enough to get
a box that they plugged into their TV and it
somehow measured everything that they were watching, and that there
was like a thousand of these people and a thousand
of these boxes around the country, and that just by
(02:22):
encouraging them to watch a particular show, they could have
enormous influence on a show getting a second season or
a third season or.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Something like that. Really you knew who they were.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
And how they got chosen in the first place. How
does OSTAM know what people are watching? Is this story
about the boxes being plugged into the TV actually based
on fact?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
The magical device there is some truth to it. Os
TAM collects starter from a carefully selected panel Michael of
not a thousand, but more than two hundred and fifty
households in the metro areas, and they represent many thousands
of individuals who can watch TV content in those households.
All of them are very carefully chosen so that you
get not just the geography represented well, but each demographic, genders,
(03:06):
and so on. Each household has technology installed on their
television sets that captures the viewing data, including which program
is being watched, what channel, what time, for how long.
Viewers in the household then log in to indicate who
is watching at that time. That data is then weighted
to reflect the border metropolitan population, so.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
It's not that far from what I was talking about,
I mean, but to be one of those.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Part from the thousand to two hundred and fifty year
of spot on.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Okay, all right, I'm assuming similar kind of thing than
for regional viewers. I had thought that it was going
to be mostly metropolitan, but of course it would have
to measure regional.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Too, absolutely so. Yes, Regional TAM runs a similar panel
in Region Australia. Together, oz TAM and Regional TAM provide
a comprehensive picture of television audiences right across the country. Now,
this data is obviously crucial in helping networks make programming decisions,
but also to help advertisers determine where they should put
their campaigns based on the size and the characteristics of
(04:06):
the audience that each show can reach.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
All right, so that system would have been great a
decade ago. Yeah, twenty years ago, thirty years ago, forty
years ago. What about the fact that we just people
just don't watch live TV anymore as well, certainly not
as much as they used to. They do still watch
live TV, That's not right, they don't watch it as
much as they did. How does OzTAM handle that?
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah, it's been remarkable change, and it's an accelerating change, Michael,
as you're alluding to. In addition to the overnight ratings,
which measure live and same day viewing, os TAM also
provides something called consolidated seven and consolidated twenty eight ratings,
and they capture time shift of viewing for seven or
twenty eight days after the broadcast, so it's a cumulative
total as to who watched the programs, So you get
(04:53):
a picture.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Then over time, so time shifted being so you're watching
it on nine now or one of those one you're watching,
say Lego Masters a week after it went to air,
that would still count in the consolidated seven.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Yes, yeah, okay, quite right. And then sometimes two programs
are replayed at different.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Times, okay, yeah, and so they're able to kind of
console aggregate pictures. Yes, Now what about streaming then, Adam
and everyone watching shows on mobile devices and laptops and everything,
because we are getting further and further away now from
that box just capturing free to air data.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yeah, we're no longer limited to a set in a
lounge room at all. So os TAM has expanded its
measurement through two key initiatives. The first is OOZ and
that's Virtual Australia vo Z and that integrate STATU from
oz TM, Regional TAM and video player measurement across connected devices.
And the second is called Streamscape, which provides insights into
(05:50):
what Australians are watching on major streaming platforms like Netflix, Disney, Plast,
Prime Video on. More So, while it does not report
audience numbers for specific programs, it does give a clear
picture of what genres and platforms are popular, including free
video on demand services like nine Now seven Plus and
ABC I View I should mention ten players well, of
(06:11):
course and SBS on demand. Oh god, big favorite here?
Is it?
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Really? Of course it would be.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Yeah. They all have great catalogs. I think each of
them do.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Yeah. And it was surprising earlier this week we actually
saw the data from Streamscape that showed how many people
are still watching free to air TV and it.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Was sixty yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Yeah, of minutes watched, we're still free to air TV,
and nine percent was Netflix and then the rest was
kind of after that. And so, I mean, clearly the
talk of the death of free to air TV has
probably been a little exaggerated at this point.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Adam.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
But things it certainly have changed, right.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Yeah, definitely, and we're a long way from the death
of linear or aerial TV and it is the mothership
that's apply so much content in general. So yeah, it's
hard to look at it as just aerial TV and
just streaming in isolation.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Okay, but it is safe to say that os TAM
measuring measuring that audience. It is not just about live
TV anymore.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
It's not that, is correct. It's really about understanding the
quite full picture do you like that of visual content
consumption in Australia, And that is a cross of course
free tooware, subscription TV, all the catch up platforms and
the streaming devices.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
I'm sorry if that joke didn't get the reception you
were hoping for. I think it got the reception it deserved.
There we go, how about that all right? Thanks very much, Adam,
Thank you Igel. Now, if you've got your own question
for Fear and Greed, jump onto the website Fear and
Greed dot com dot au. It can be anything if
you want to. I mean, it doesn't need to just
be about audience measurement, but hey, go for it. So
(07:51):
if you can find a way to stump the data guru.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
I could do radio printed website. It's all sorts of things.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Outdoor media, yep, any of the above, all right, send you,
we send you a question through the website fearinggreed dot
com today you or any of the social media platforms.
I'm Michael Thompson and this is ask fear and greet
Speaker 2 (08:10):
H
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