Agcom, revolution in the audience measurement sector

Agcom’s historic resolution that goes so far as to give precise directions to the sector of measurement and survey of editorial audiences, both television and digital, in Italy. A detailed and punctual address that comes to put an end to a period characterized by disputes over the Audiweb methodology and its use and data transit to Facebook, a period that very recently saw the failure of the Audiweb-Audipress cold fusion with the consequent announcement by Fieg of wanting to undertake the measurement of digital audiences on their own. Agcom sweeps away all these hypotheses and quarrels by pointing the finger at the excessive fragmentation and non-comparability of the work of subjects headed by and referring to stakeholders divided by editorial type. AgCom, granting 12 months of time to subjects aspiring to the operation of independent meter (JIC – Joint Industry Committee) to be able to comply with the directives issued. (THE TEXT OF THE RESOLUTION) The main points mentioned in the provision concern the need to measure the audience performance of all the operating subjects, in order to deliver to advertising investors (and Upa seems to have a position of relevance with respect to Fieg, Fedoweb and Una ) a measure as complete as possible of the picture of attraction and audience behavior: the authority is very clear that the address of advertising capital is decisive for the success of any publishing operation, which means that as far as television audiences are concerned, they should not only the spectators of national broadcasters can be measured but also the spectators achieved by the main video content platforms such as YouTube or Netflix and others. Hence, the direct comparison between the ability to attract the attention of viewers both on home screens and on computers and smartphones.Another fundamental indication concerns the availability of the intellectual property rights of the strategic assets used by the JIC to carry out the research: the JICs they must be able to control the entire data production chain, with a guiding and guiding role (this definitively closes the door to the Audiweb methodology). with Agcom in fact to suggest the alliance of all the editorial subjects to overcome the historical period of the various ‘mini-audi’, in order to see a single independent, transparent, inspectable subject that measures the audience of paper, web and television. All this, also with precise references and analysis of international experiences and with an important reference to the start of the cookieless season that is coming, suggesting that the new JIC may be capable of operating on first-party data. The resolution is very complex and articulated, with technical references, and will require an in-depth study for the understanding and complete forecast of the consequences on the market and on the subjects operating in this sector.