Advanced analytics measure demand for TV content in real-time

New Zealand company is using advanced AI and data science to bring the way TV audiences are measured out of the dark ages and into the now.

The way users consume TV content has evolved enormously over the last 15 years, with traditional linear TV taking a step back to Video On Demand services and all new streaming portals (Netflix, Amazon Prime etc), making TV consumption much more fluid and dynamic. But the way audiences are measured hasn’t kept up with this evolution – most Broadcasters only have two figures to work with, Overnights (figures released each morning showing how many watched what on regular TV last night, based on a small subset) and Consolidated (each individual show’s VOD viewing figures, watched on the Broadcaster’s own VOD player).

Parrot Analytics is set to change all that with a far more advanced and “live” feedback system, so broadcasters and TV producers can gauge what’s working (and what’s likely to work) with far more precision. It’s already been picked up by BBC Worldwide and Fox Networks, and CEO and co-founder Wared Seger has said the service offered is designed to start at the beginning of a show’s creative process. “To stay ahead of the curve we need to always understand what the latest trends are. We are now able to compare the popularity or the demand for different content titles regardless of what platform they are on.”

It’s an incredibly complex system of algorithms that’ll create statistical areas such as the Content Genome, Demographic Classification Engine and the Demand Monetization Index. It uses the Parrot Demand Rating to see how much demand there is for a single show across several markets, and the Parrot Demand Expressions to gauge how several shows can perform within a single market.

Monitoring audiences has become an increasingly more important part of the media – it helps both commercially and creatively. TVisions Insights measures viewers emotional reactions to shows using eye-tracking tech, and the TV makers are developing new concepts that take dynamic interaction to a whole new level, such as Germany’s Das Erste which lets viewers vote on a show’s outcome. Which other industries could benefit from such advanced research and feedback as Parrot’s?