Foxtel Taps NDS to Measure Viewer Behavior across Linear TV, DVR, VOD and Interactive TV

Interactive TV and conditional access technology provider, NDS, announced Tuesday that Australian pay-TV operator, Foxtel (which employs OpenTV middleware alongside various interactive technologies from NDS), has chosen its NDS Dynamic Audience Measurement System, integrated with TNS Media Research's RaPiDView audience measurement service, to track and analyze audience behavior across its network and to enable the introduction of advanced advertising products.

According to NDS, the NDS Dynamic Audience Measurement System (which is part of the company's NDS Dynamic suite of solutions for interactive and addressable advertising) will allow Foxtel to collect enhanced viewing information in homes that have agreed to participate in a measurement panel to assist the pay-TV provider with advertising and marketing decisions. The company says that the technology, in addition to tracking audience behavior in relation to live TV, will monitor DVR and VOD viewing and usage of Foxtel's EPG and its other interactive TV applications. Data from the pre-defined panel of set-top boxes, which was recruited by TNS Media Research, will allow Foxtel to learn more about viewership of its services, and thus to optimize those services and its marketing strategies, NDS says.

NDS bills the combination of NDS Dynamic and TNS's RaPiDView service as a "best-of-breed solution that combines NDS' expertise in STB data collection with TNS' expertise in STB data processing and analysis." According to TNS, the RaPiDView service delivers information gained from the Return Path Data stream from digital set-top boxes, providing accurate tracking of the channels and ads viewers watch and the services they use.

By monitoring usage of advanced advertising applications, such as the interactive TV red button and on-demand ads, NDS says, Foxtel's airtime sales house, Multi Channel Network (MCN) will be able to make better informed ad-placement decisions and expand its portfolio of advanced advertising services. MCN recently established an independent company, Multiview Analytics, to operate a home audience panel of 10,000 pay-TV homes; it expects the latter's first reports on audience behavior to be available in the fourth quarter. "As we improve the level of accountability we offer media buyers, we will be able to offer a superior ad sales service and grow our multichannel TV ad sales," MCN CEO, Anthony Fitzgerald, said in a prepared statement. "By acting on the information made available through NDS Dynamic, we will be able to make better ad placement decisions and, in the future, support new formats such as interactive advertising and addressable advertising." Added Patrick Delany, Foxtel's executive director of sales and product: "In a competitive market, we have to understand which services appeal to our subscribers, so we can provide a product that suits their viewing habits. With NDS Dynamic, integrated with the TNS RaPiDView service, we will have access to valuable information that can be used to improve the way we package, promote and sell our services." And added Gideon Gilboa, NDS's product marketing manager for advertising solutions: "NDS Dynamic is a flexible and all-inclusive platform for delivering a wide array of addressable and interactive advertising applications. Reliable audience measurement is the basis for all of these advanced advertising applications. We are pleased to be able to help Foxtel to get the accurate data it needs for its decision-making and for more efficient and effective marketing."