The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) has unveiled a cross-platform rating system for the first time in Asean that enables the viewership measurements of both television and digital platforms.
The new rating system is set to provide a single, deduplicated and incremental audience metric across linear and digital streaming, regardless of platform or device.
The move is aimed at establishing a better standard system that deals with digital disruption, exploding content and rapidly changing consumer behaviour.
The project is financially supported by a fund from the NBTC worth 288 million baht.
Pirongrong Ramasoota, an NBTC board member, said the regulator has recognised the importance of business survival and the development of Thailand's television industry, in line with changes in technology and consumer behaviour in the digital era.
The NBTC allocated the budget to the Association of Digital Television Broadcasting (ADTEB) to pursue this project and the ADTEB then chose AGB Nielsen Media Research (Thailand) to develop the system and conduct the cross-platform ratings over the next four years.
The newly developed cross-platform ratings data will deduplicate figures for both live viewing and digital streaming without limitation on any platforms or devices, Ms Pirongrong said.
This allows TV stations, media agencies and distributor platforms to more precisely plan strategies to attract and increase audience engagement.
It will also enable marketers to understand audience behaviour on all platforms and make appropriate marketing plans, she said.
More importantly, the new system will definitely help drive competition in television and broadcasting industries in terms of content quality too, she said.
At present there are 15 digital television channels, down from 24 at the start.
"Today, television operators are delivering content through a variety of digital platforms and the rating system has to be accurate and credible," said Ms Pirongrong.
Pumtat Boonyakarn, client service director of AGB Nielsen Media Research (Thailand) and head of the cross-platform project, said the company will deliver cross-platform ratings data to ADTEB, NBTC and those in the industry, respectively.
In August, the company will deliver data sets in two categories -- viewership on live linear television (traditional and streaming) and through digital devices (computers, tablets and smartphones).
In September, the data set delivered will concern live viewership ratings in both linear television and digital devices.
In the fourth quarter, the data set delivered will involve viewership ratings on both linear television and digital devices for playback programmes.
The company will deliver a full data set of cross-platform ratings in February next year.
Mr Pumtat said the rating system will benefit all parties as it delivers a daily view of how Thai people engage with videos across all platforms as well as powering the industry for strategic and tactical decisions for media buyers and sellers.