Time shift viewing
At the start of the 2010 ratings year, OzTAM introduced its Time Shift Viewing service in response to the increasing presence of personal video recorders (PVRs) in Australian households.
It was the most significant change to Australian television audience measurement since people meters were introduced in 1991.
OzTAM's Time Shift Viewing service captures the viewing of television broadcast programming at a later time than the actual broadcast time in households that have devices such as a VCR, PVR or DVR.
This can include the pausing of a program as it is broadcast live and then continuing to watch it in playback mode (‘As Live’) or the viewing of a recorded program on another day but within seven days of the original broadcast (‘Time Shift’).
To capture Time Shift Viewing, OzTAM and its ratings service provider Nielsen TAM have deployed a sophisticated metering system called Unitam.
Unitam uses state-of-the-art content matching technologies to measure all viewing to all television channels on all TV sets in OzTAM panel homes, both in the Metropolitan Total TV and National STV services.
To ensure that As Live and Time Shift viewing is incorporated in OzTAM ratings, reference centres across Australia store all the broadcast content for every channel in their respective area for seven days after broadcast. They identify whether the programming viewed in panel homes matches content that was broadcast earlier in that seven-day period. Content matching means Unitam looks for the same programs, promotions and advertisements.
Only standard speed (normal) playback is included in OzTAM viewing figures; fast-forwarded material is not counted, nor is material that has been recorded but not actually viewed (played back).
OzTAM delivers two data sets each day:
- Overnight – delivered each morning. Includes ratings based on Preliminary Times for yesterday's programs that were watched as they actually went to air ('Live') or were recorded and played back by 2am ('As Live')
- Consolidated – delivered each afternoon for the same research day a week earlier and taking into account Confirmed Times, incorporating ‘Live’, ‘As Live’ and ’Time Shift’ viewing within seven days of the original broadcast
For example, on Monday afternoon OzTAM supplies Consolidated ratings for programs that aired the previous Sunday (8 days ago).
Refer to OzTAM’s Data Availability Calendar for more information.
See also Time Shift Viewing reporting variables.
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