The TV business subsists on three-letter acronyms. So right here’s one other one so as to add to your assortment: RPD.
Return-path knowledge (RPD) is viewing info processed by a TV system, reminiscent of a cable or satellite tv for pc set-top field. Measurement corporations use RPD to assist advertisers and programmers determine the place adverts ran and who noticed them based mostly on viewing session particulars.
The time period RPD can generally additionally discuss with knowledge from different units that seize TV viewing, reminiscent of sensible TVs and gaming consoles, making it an “umbrella time period” for any device-level details about TV viewership, stated Pete Doe, chief knowledge officer at Nielsen.
However though the definition of RPD technically encompasses computerized content material recognition (ACR), which tracks viewing on sensible TVs, there are nuances that set ACR aside. It’s due to this fact “handy” to tell apart ACR from set-top field knowledge, Doe stated.
He added that Nielsen’s purchasers sometimes use the time period RPD to explain solely set-top field knowledge.
Return coverage
Set-top field knowledge features a hashed family ID, the TV channel the family was watching and a timestamp. Measurement corporations get this knowledge through direct contracts with cable and satellite tv for pc suppliers.
However RPD is “messy,” stated Carol Hinnant, chief income officer at Comscore, as a result of a variety of different knowledge should enter the combo to make RPD helpful.
For instance, measurement suppliers need to first examine RPD with program schedules to find out the community and channel as signaled by a set-top field, Hinnant stated.
Measurement corporations should then deduce the family behind the hashed ID, which relies on subscriber particulars a cable or satellite tv for pc supplier has however can’t disclose for privateness causes (reminiscent of dwelling tackle).
These hashed IDs sometimes get matched with third-party id suppliers, reminiscent of Experian, to uncover details about TV viewers for viewers segmentation, together with family earnings, credit score info, ethnicity and training degree. Advertisers can use these insights to refine their viewers targets like, say, to search out extra high-income households that watch sports activities.
Nielsen additionally makes use of its viewers panels to appropriate inconsistent knowledge, as a result of it may well see the age, gender and most well-liked language of individuals in panel households.
If Nielsen picks up on a Spanish-speaking family watching Univision, for instance, and a third-party knowledge supplier identifies that family as non-Hispanic, it’s attainable the exterior knowledge set contains fallacious or incomplete knowledge.
As soon as measurement suppliers infer who watched what, they’ll use RPD to find out the attain and frequency of TV advert campaigns.
ACR vs. STB
Nonetheless, set-top field knowledge isn’t the one knowledge measurement suppliers use to trace TV advert exposures.
In addition they use ACR, a subset of RPD that works otherwise from set-top containers.
ACR is expertise inside sensible TVs that learns to acknowledge content material by preserving a reference library of what’s taking part in on the display screen. However whereas ACR can establish content material past the bounds of a program information (aka on-demand streaming), it may well’t establish what it possible hasn’t seen earlier than, like content material on hyperlocal stations.
Entry to ACR can also be beholden to the phrases of distribution agreements between sensible TV corporations and streaming companies, based on Hinnant. Some streaming platforms don’t permit content material distributors to trace viewing inside their apps, reminiscent of Netflix.
One benefit of ACR for advertisers is that it solely tracks exercise when a TV is turned on, not like set-top containers which will nonetheless be operating even when a TV is off. The TV business heralds ACR as a solution to cross-platform measurement due to this distinction and its means to establish present titles rapidly.
However ACR and set-top field knowledge every have distinctive strengths and shortcomings, Doe stated, which is why, ideally, TV advertisers ought to be making shopping for selections based mostly on each.
