Measuring Media Use Across Platforms: Evolving Audience Information Systems

Abstract

Audience measurement worldwide is responding to the need to measure media consumption across platforms. One approach being employed by the industry is “single source” audience information systems that measure usage across media and purchase behavior from the same set of respondents. This study evaluates the readiness of such systems to meet the current challenges in measuring audiences by analyzing single source systems from five diverse media markets. The analysis reveals that these systems capture dimensions of audience behavior other than exposure—an enhancement over traditional audience information systems. However, their usage in the marketplace suggests that single source data complement existing mono media systems than serve as alternate currencies.