ITV

Tag: Civolution

  • DD gets watermarked

    DD gets watermarked

    MUMBAI: The pubcaster has finally got itself inked for ratings. Doordarshan’s 20 channels have got watermarked as per the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India’s standards for viewership ratings.

    Doordarshan, which has been a founding member of the measurement council, took a while to get the channels watermarked. As per sources, the cost of watermarking a channel costs around Rs 20 lakh and the pubcaster has spent close to Rs 4.5 crore to get the technology on board.

    The audience measurement company has already got on board 250 channels that have ordered for watermarking embedders. Half of this has already been installed.

    The watermarking technology has been taken from Netherlands based Civolution and field testing of the meters is underway for homologating them to Indian conditions. As BARC India has consistently maintained, the meters have been assembled in India at a fraction of the cost of global suppliers.

    Deals with 26 vendor partners such as Intel, Hansa, Mediametrie, Civolution, Markdata, Magic9Media across 12 processes have been finalised. It also claims that this is the largest such audience measurement system globally with cutting edge technology.

    The government has laid down policy guidelines that prescribe a minimum of 20, 000 homes, which BARC India feels isn’t enough in the long run. It has also opted for the harder and tougher method of assembling systems from various vendors to offer a superior and cost effective output.

     

  • Kantar Media to acquire audio watermarking unit of Civolution

    Kantar Media to acquire audio watermarking unit of Civolution

    MUMBAI: In a significant move, Kantar Media, a 50 per cent owner of TAM, has agreed to acquire the audio watermarking unit of Civolution, the technology, which Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) is going to use for its proposed audience measurement system.

     
    The acquisition will strengthen the firm’s audience measurement technologies and opening up new and exciting opportunities around second screen activation. The acquisition, expected to be completed by the end of 2014, will build on Kantar Media’s significant global presence and activities in digital audience measurement across all media in 60+ countries.

    “We have long admired the expertise and skills of Jean-Michel and his team,” commented Kantar Media Audiences global CEO Richard Asquith and added, “In joining Kantar Media they will strengthen our suite of technology to measure audiences for content across all devices in all formats. Broadcasters, agencies and advertisers can track viewing to their content across TV, tablet and mobile screens, and benefit from our ability to deliver accurate audience measurement as the media ecosystem continues to evolve.”

    The watermarking unit, led by Jean-Michel Masson, is recognised as a world leader in audio watermarking technology deployed in hundreds of broadcast channels across the world. Kantar Media already uses watermarking technology in a number of its TV, radio and internet audience measurement services. In addition to this, Kantar Media’s ability to link second screens to TV content will also be strengthened through SyncNow, already widely used by many of the leading broadcasters.

    Further, Masson commented, “We are excited at the prospect of becoming part of Kantar Media. We already enjoy a successful history of co-operation with the business and look forward to working with broadcasters, agencies, industry bodies and the wider market across Kantar Media’s measurement footprint.”

    The team will continue to be based in Rennes, France.

  • 250 channels sign up for BARC India’s watermarking technology

    250 channels sign up for BARC India’s watermarking technology

    MUMBAI: Even as signs of a delay from Broadcast Audience Measurement Council’s (BARC) side are doing the rounds, the audience measurement company has already got on board 250 channels that have ordered for watermarking embedders. Half of this has already been installed.

    The watermarking technology has been taken from Netherlands based Civolution and field testing of the meters is underway for homologating them to Indian conditions. As BARC India has consistently maintained, the meters have been assembled in India at a fraction of the cost of global suppliers.

    Deals with 26 vendor partners such as Intel, Hansa, Mediametrie, Civolution, Markdata, Magic9Media across 12 processes have been finalised. It also claims that this is the largest such audience measurement system globally with cutting edge technology.

    Very soon, it will start testing and validating the data from the system. The government has laid down policy guidelines that prescribe a minimum of 20, 000 homes, which BARC India feels isn’t enough in the long run. It has also opted for the harder and tougher method of assembling systems from various vendors to offer a superior and cost effective output.

    The measurement process undertaken by BARC India is as follows:

     

  • Civolution to provide watermarking technology to BARC

    Civolution to provide watermarking technology to BARC

    MUMBAI: Civolution, a Netherlands-based provider of technology and solutions for identifying, managing and monetising content has announced that the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) has contracted it to provide its watermarking technology to underpin one of the world’s largest audience measurement platforms.

     

    The announcement comes shortly after BARC chose the TV meter system of Mediametrie, the audience measurement and survey company for television, radio, cinema and the internet. The two companies will build the technology framework for audience measurement solution for BARC.

     

    BARC addresses a population of over 1 billion, of which over 600 million have access to television in some form. This will be the first fully digital audience measurement system employed directly by the Indian broadcasters, advertisers and ad agencies and is scheduled to commence operations towards the end of this year.

     

    The audience measurement system – which has already successfully been deployed by Mediametrie in multiple TV markets – relies on Civolution’s audio watermarking coding technology for automated content identification and integrates seamlessly into Mediametrie’s TV meter system for panellists’ equipment and panellists’ data processing. It provides broadcasters with a detailed analysis of their exposure to the public, whether by the number of households tuning in to the programme or the amount of time spent watching each piece of content.

     

    “India has one of the largest TV audiences in the world so it was critical for us to create an audience measurement system that is gold standard,” said BARC CEO Partho Dasgupta. “By leveraging Civolution and Mediametrie’s expertise in audience tracking, technology and analytics we can now study viewers’ TV habits in precise detail, enabling broadcasters and advertisers to implement efficient strategies to reach their target audience.”

     

    Civolution’s audio watermark is embedded in the TV’s sound track prior to broadcast. Upon airing, the content is then identified by Mediametrie’s TV meter, in real-time. In addition to granular measurement of the content being watched, the solution features support for catch-up TV. The technology provides cross-platform audience measurement and will enable mobile device measurement, triggering the creation of new services and the reduction of operating costs. In parallel, the same watermark infrastructure deployed by Indian broadcasters could be used to synchronize with great accuracy their own interactive second screen applications.

     

    ”With so many new ways of watching TV content in this multi-screen universe, precise audience measurement has become increasingly complex. Audience measurement services must now report more accurately and reliably, from a larger number of channels, delivered through a fast-changing and diverse mix of broadcast platforms, and consumed either in real time or time-shifted” said Civolution CEO Alex Terpstra.

     

    ”Through our close collaboration with Mediametrie, we have devised a powerful solution that provides accurate and reliable audience data that will allow BARC to help broadcasters plan, entertain and monetize their TV audiences,” added Civolution SVP Watermarking Solutions Jean Michel Masson.

     

    Mediametrie Director of Audiences Measurement Benoit Cassaigne added: ”We are very enthusiastic to embark on this project with Civolution and its watermarking technology, which is definitely the most powerful and error-free content detection technique available for TV audience measurement.  This means we are future-proofed in the fast-changing world of TV.  Mediametrie has relied on Civolution’s technology for many years.”