British Broadcasters Adopt NBC Universal's Unified Advertising Metric CFlight

British TV broadcasters ITV, Sky and Channel 4 have partnered to offer a unified advertising metric that will run across their digital viewing platforms through NBC's campaign measurement tool Cflight. Created by Comcast-owned NBCUniversal in 2018, the measurement was a response to the growing increase of on-demand viewing that legacy metrics were proving unable to monitor. Sky adopted the measurement in May 2019, but now ITV and Channel 4 have also confirmed their uptake. Launching CFlight in the U.K. The launch of the use of the post-campaign online evaluation tool will see it measure advertising across live, on-demand and time-shifted viewing. This resulting metric is based on a composite score developed from independent, third-party sources (including Nielsen, ComScore and Moat in the U.S.) to equate linear and digital media viewing. Cflight has the ability to measure and deliver insights around campaign reach and frequency. The Broadcasters' Audience Research Board's (BARB) measurement will be used in the U.K. running across various viewing methods from such as OTT to linear, with the ability to support commercial impressions across any delivery platform. Initially, CFlight will offer both linear TV ad impacts and census-level BVOD delivered impressions that will be provided by sales houses to give total reach and frequency exposure counts. 2022 will see regular updates to mature the offer of key demographic audiences and more flexibility and functionality. Media agencies will be able to use the tool at no cost through a site hosted by TechEdge to access features such as measurement across devices, platforms and apps and impact impressions across linear and BVOD. Steve Bignell, Publicis Media Exchange's chief executive told Adweek that while at launch CFlight will only report 'all adult viewing', he was looking forward to seeing its development with future iterations adding further demographics and including other platforms such as Amazon Prime and YouTube. The industry has been crying out for a solution In response to the announcement, Keith Welling, managing partner, investment for IPG-media agency UM, told Adweek that the TV ad industry had been “crying out” for a unified TV and Broadcaster video on demand (BVOD) campaign measurement system for a long time. “Our AV planning systems have been indicating to us that TV advertising’s power remains undiminished once BVOD viewing is included. To have a system that provides comprehensive measurement across all devices and platforms should prove it,” said Welling, adding that the success of CFlight would depend on capturing trusted viewing data across the entire broadcaster ecosystem. He explained that the need for media software that provided consistency with campaign planning by agencies would be vital. “Nothing less than a collaboration involving all the broadcasters, BARB, RSMB and TechEdge could achieve this.” The growth of BVOD in relevance and marketing spend meant the adoption of CFlight immediately was “vital,” Welling said, but bemoaned the ability to only analyze viewing on a broad audience level. “Demographic breakdowns are on the roadmap and speed really is of the essence,” he concluded. How NBCUniversal Is Giving Brand Partners the Most Comprehensive Understanding of Their Ad Exposures