Measurement system in jeopardy if data shared prematurely: STB group

Requiring TV service providers to supply programming services with raw viewership data prior to the launch of a set-top box measurement system will undermine the working group’s effort to launch that system, the country’s largest telecoms are arguing. As part of the STB working group, BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc., and Shaw Communications Inc. all endeavoured to complete by September 30, 2019 a CRTC-mandated measurement system that would feed viewership data to ratings company Numeris. The ratings company would then combine it with its existing data to provide programming services with a comprehensive picture of what Canadians are watching, with a view towards better target advertising sales among other uses. When it renewed the licenses back in August of 2018, the CRTC imposed both an active and suspended condition of licence on the implementation of the system. The active COL requires the system to be implemented by September 2019. If the September deadline passes with no measurement system in place -- as it has already -- then the suspended COL would be triggered, requiring individual BDUs to hand over raw data to programming services that provide the content to be distributed. Once that suspended COL is triggered, the working group said there would no longer be a requirement to develop or implement the measurement system, which it said is a superior solution compared to the BDUs simply handing over the raw data to programming services. Last week, the CRTC set a December 12 deadline for interested parties to respond to an August joint Part 1 application by Bell, Rogers and Shaw, which asked the CRTC to remove the hard September 2019 date for delivery of STB data to the measurement system and instead make it conditional on the system becoming operational. The group has put the blame for the system’s delay squarely on Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron, which initially withdrew from the working group in April and reneged on its obligation to submit data to Numeris. Videotron has since been ordered by the CRTC to submit data to the system and failed to get the Federal Court to hear its case. The group now says it expects the system to be fully operational and adopted by industry by September 2020, with a pilot data phase in May 2020. According to a letter to the CRTC -- dated October 18 and following the court’s decision to decline hearing its case -- Numeris said it can follow a September 2019 to April 2020 timeline for a “minimal STB solution,” which is a national system without Quebec. “Numeris would prefer to launch a complete National Measurement Solution integrated with , but can proceed with a minimal Measurement System in the interim,” the letter said. “It will be our priority to integrate from Videotron (for the Quebec market) once Videotron has executed a BDU Data License Agreement with Numeris,” the letter added. When asked what the system might look like by September 2020, Numeris said in an emailed statement that the “nature of the service, its scale, and its geographic scope are all dependent upon the data we are able to license from BDUs. As Numeris is still in the process of finalizing such license agreements and is still developing and building the measurement system, it would be premature to comment on what the system will look like in September 2020, and what geographies may or may not be included.” The measurement system, which is being touted as the first of its kind in the world, was initially conceived of during the CRTC’s Let’s Talk TV proceeding in 2014 and will aggregate TV service provider data from set-top boxes with Numeris’ television audience measurement (TAM) system to create what will be called the extended television audience measurement (ETAM). Those who are interested in the ETAM will sign an agreement with Numeris to get access to the STB data. “A unified approach to reconciling raw...data, as proposed by the Numeris Measurement System, ensures the data efficacy and minimizes any variances that can occur when data resolution is attempted by individual BDUs or without a common data foundation that is holistically representative of Canadians,” Numeris said in the letter. “Numeris’ primary audience measurement for Television provides that comparable foundation.” The BDUs added that, “if the suspensive COLs are imposed, the BDUs will be compelled to shift from the collaborative effort which has been necessary to develop and implement the Measurement System to a potentially highly contentious and inferior new approach.” That inferior approach, it said, would not achieve and “may actually undermine” several of the objectives of the CRTC, which include permitting broadcasters to make informed programming selections and scheduling decisions, allow broadcasters to find new opportunities for monetizing advertisements, and levelling the playing field between Canadian broadcasters and international and online video services. The group is looking at a January deadline that will require the three providers to complete individual “non-exclusive data licensing agreements to govern the use of STB data” in the system, the Part 1 said. The agreements will encompass the ownership of the STB data, the scope of the system, privacy protections, security of the data and cost recovery. “Videotron’s STB data was critical to the operation of the system that was developed by Numeris and the Working Group and many elements will need to be recalibrated or re-designed to account for Videotron’s potential non-participation,” the August submission said. The suspended COL was put in place because it was still “highly uncertain” that the measurement system could be produced, according to the Part 1. “Since that time, the Working Group together with Numeris successfully completed a Proof of Concept,” the application added. “The BDUs submit that this is a material change in the evidence before the Commission that ‘put into question the Commission’s decision to impose the conditions of licence’ as they are currently structured, and justifies the amendments proposed by the BDUs.” — With reporting by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca and editing by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca

Measurement system in jeopardy if data shared prematurely: STB group

News | December 2, 2019

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