Auditel will release the online audience rates soon. The first data on audience rates from smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, etc. will be available in July 2018.
Auditel, the company led by Andrea Imperiali has made a very important step in the collection of Italian audience data. In addition to the TV audience rates, Auditel has also collected the online results, as a reflection of the great increase of audio-visual use in recent years. The arrival of streaming platforms has changed the audience’s habits, who can now choose what to watch, when to watch it and, most importantly, where. The contents on demand are always available on our smart TVs, PCs, tablets, not to mention our smartphones.
Considering these changes, which inevitably have influenced traditional TV usage data, now it is essential to register online rates, and therefore track all those users who prefer streaming instead of TV. Besides, recording online data also implies acknowledging the presence of the new giants that are conquering the world of traditional media, i.e. OTTs like Netflix or Amazon Prime Video.
How will this new survey be carried out? The data collected will be based on specific devices and not on users. Therefore, the access to content on one device rather than another will be considered as an alternative (it is rare for the same user to look at the same content on both the tablet and the PC). Auditel, however, is already planning to monitor also independent users for greater accuracy of the final rates and with the ultimate purpose of reaching a further phase in which they will be able to add results on socio-demographic trends, something expected to happen between 2019 and 2020.
